A very different Ashikabi
by Arawn D. Draven
Summary: When the Dursleys go to Japan, Dudley accidentally activates a security in MBI's locals that kill them. Now, what will MBI and Karasuba do with the child they found when they checked the Dursleys' car? Rated M for mention of torture and child abuse, and future language and gore. There will be domeDumbledore, Potters, and some Weasley bashing. You are warned.
1. Chapter 1-Prologue

**Yeah, I'm back, and this time with a story, not a one-shot!**

**So, here is the prologue of my new story, I hope you will like it. I had always wanted to try and make a story about a Harry Potter raised by Karasuba of the Sekirei Universe, so here is the resulting tale. I'm going to try and make this story as good as I can, so reviews and constructive criticism are welcome!**

**Now, before I start, I want to make one thing clear: yes, there will be Dumbledore, Weasleys and even some Potters bashing. I know it has been done often, and I know some people simply don't like easy stereotypes, like "Dumbledore is a manipulative old bastard", or "Ronald is a pureblood idiot". What I want to do, and what I will hopefully achieve, is to bash these people for what they have done or will do, BUT I want to show that they are people with their reasons to act as they did. Ron, for example, is the youngest Weasley boy, and feels overlooked, so he tries to stick to his Mother's view of the world, since he wants to be acknowledged, even if it means acting like a mindless drone. As for Dumbledore, the man is old, and has been hailed as the Second Merlin since he defeated Grindelwald. He also has a pretty heavy past (see in canon), and has come to believe that sometimes, the Greater Good (as he calls it) supercedes the individual happiness. THAT is why he wanted to manipulate Harry, and believed he had the "right" to. He didn't expect the Dursleys to be even half as bad as they were to Harry, since his own experience of family is that you'd do anything for a family member. He knew they wouldn't love Harry, but he had expected them to at most ignore and or/insult him, nothing more.**

**And here is the last little add before I let you read, I want to warn potential readers that I will update around once a month, sometimes more, and (hopefully not often) sometimes less. I know that some amazing authors manage to update huge chapters regularly and with a quality that makes me envious (_Lupine__ Horror,_ anyone? His/her _Fate Gamble_ is just one of my all-time favorites), but I'd rather not give people false hopes.**

**Well, for those that I haven't scared off, here comes the Prologue. Little warning though: the dates will be ten years in the future, meaning Harry was born in 1990.  
**

**PS: I don't own either Harry Potter or Sekirei, those are the properties of their respective authors.**

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01

**Prologue**

Seven years old Harry Potter was waiting in the car for his Uncle and Aunt to come back. Oh, he wasn't sad, even if he would have liked to be able to walk around a little, but seeing as his Uncle had told him that he didn't want his "freakish ways" to prevent him from making a deal with this new and big society, MBI it was called, he had been told to stay inside the car. For a seven years old, he was quite small, and unnaturally thin, mostly due to the fact that his relatives had told him he wasn't allowed to eat too much, as he was a strain to their "well-earned money". Harry was a very intelligent child, and observant too. He had to, seeing as he wasn't allowed to do better than Dudley at school, since it would mean getting a beating. It was much harder to have bad grades purposely than to simply be good, so he had to be even better at his subjects if he wanted to do worse than Dudley. And he had to be observant, seeing as he couldn't afford to get hit too much by Dudley and his gang, or his Uncle would beat him for being dirty.

When Vernon had been asked to make a trip to Japan to approach a new company that had been doing better and better since a few years ago, Harry hadn't really listened, since he expected to be left to Mrs. Figgs, but Vernon had told him that he didn't want to risk him using his freakish powers to destroy the house, so he had been invited too. Of course, since they had arrived, he had not gone on any of the sightseeing trips his relatives had gone to, so he had had to make do with whatever he could find. He had taken a liking to observing the architecture, as it was very different from what you found in England.

He had been in the car for around seven hours, when he saw someone walking fast towards it. He immediately crouched, trying to make himself as unnoticeable as possible, as Vernon had told him that if anyone saw him, he'd get a beating. As he was hiding, he was mumbling "Please don't find me, please don't find me, please don't find me". Now, Harry had noticed that sometimes, when he was really hurt, or that he really needed something, _things_ happened. Not ordinary things, no, _things_. One time he had been angry at a teacher for calling him a cheater, and the teacher's wig had turned blue! He was hoping that this time too, he would be lucky.

However, as someone opened the door of the car, he tentatively peeked through his fingers to see who it was, and was surprised to see a woman in her thirties, with a cigarette in her mouth, a lab coat, and an identification badge looking at him. What surprised him was that the woman had completely white hair, even though she looked young enough to be his mother.

Takami Sahashi was in a foul mood, as she walked briskly down the corridors of the MBI building. She had been the one charged to greet the three English guests, and frankly, she was glad that they were dead. It was their own fault that they died, seeing as their fat and idiotic son had just had the marvelous idea to wander in a restricted area and try pressing random buttons on a control panel. If he hadn't done so, then thirty people would still be alive, including his parents and himself. Not that Takami would have allowed such a disgrace to the name of the human race to live. Seriously, for the half-hour she had been in the presence of those people, she had to restrain the urge to vomit. The man, Vernon Dursley, was by far the fattest person she had ever had the displeasure to see, and had put on so much Cologne that you could smell him a corridor and a half away! Then there was the woman, Petunia Dursley, who by using such a name insulted the flower itself, seeing as she had a horse-like face with a very long neck. Then there was the son, Dudley Dursley, who by what she had seen was well in the steps of becoming as fat as his father. The brat had been polite at first, but when she had started to show them around the facilities, he had quickly begun walking around and touching everything, and his parents had not even scolded him once, going so far as to praise his curiosity. That is, until they entered a room and the young idiot had managed to lock the three of them in, while she was answering a call from Minaka. When she had hung up, the fat child had already activated several securities, locking several teams in rooms that were then flooded with poisonous gas.

Now, several teams of scientists were dead, as well as the Dursleys, and MBI would have to explain it to the police. Two of their best teams of scientists were dead, and all Minaka did was shrug it off as an unfortunate accident. Then again, he always had had a questionable sanity, and with the discovery of the Sekirei, and of their technology, he had gotten even more crazy, acting like some kind of megalomaniacal genius. It was things like this that made Takami aware of the reason she had white hair while she was barely thirty: stress. Working in a fast expanding, recently turned multinational company, that so happened to be holding alien life forms in their labs, was not a job just anyone could do.

As she strode down the corridors, she felt her cell phone go off. As she took it out, she groaned as she saw the caller. Reluctantly, she answered the phone:

"_Yes?_

_-Aah, Takami-kun. I would like you to check out the car of our foreign guests, see if there is anything suggesting that they were here for anything else than business_."

Takami gritted her teeth. What was wrong with this man? Did she look like a security agent? No! She had way more than enough work as it was, without having to fulfill the duties of the MBI security force.

"_Are you joking, Minaka? Do you have any idea of how much I have right now? Unless you've missed it, we have several dead scientists, and it won't be long before the police start nagging us on what happened. And you want me to do the job of a grunt?_

_-Now, now, Takami-kun, no need to be this aggressive. I was suggesting that you did so, because our cameras have brought up a surpriseee~._"

She had to resist the urge to bang her head on the wall, and the few scientists who were passing by gave her a wide berth, as they were well aware of just what her scowl entailed. Damn that fool for speaking in riddles, she didn't have time for that!

"_Minaka, just get to the damn point! I don't have all day!_

_-Nope, it's a surrrprissseeee~. Just go down and see if there is anything interesting in the car._"

And with that, he ended his call, leaving a pissed Takami, who knew that he may be a madman, but he was a clever madman, and never did anything without a good reason, even if said reason was to have fun by creating a battle royale involving the only known alien life forms man had ever made contact with.

Suddenly feeling extremely tired, she decided that she would take a look, if only to make Minaka shut up, otherwise he would nag her until she did what he wanted. Taking the closest elevator, she went outside, taking out a cigarette to have a relaxing smoke. Nobody said she couldn't mix pleasure and duty on this particular one, right?

After a few puffs, and some nicotine in her system, she decided that she'd better get it over. Minaka had sent her a description of the Dursleys' car, as well as its location. Walking towards it, she thought she saw a shadow inside, but the time for her to blink, it had disappeared. She paused at that. In a normal company, a normal employee would have dismissed this as their imagination playing them tricks, however, MBI was not by any stretch of imagination an ordinary company, and as head geneticist on their main project, Takami was certainly not an ordinary person.

Taking out her phone, she quickly dialed a preregistered number.

"_Yume? Please come to the parking, please. I have reasons to believe we may have an unsavory guest._"

Closing her phone, she waited for the Sekirei to come. Calling number 08 to help her may be overkill, but considering how many attempts to steal technology from MBI the Disciplinary Squad had to destroy, she wasn't willing to take any risks. Besides, she was a scientist, not a fighter. Though she wondered if she wasn't a little too paranoid, the Dursleys were _way_ too nasty to be a good cover for an infiltration attempt.

"_Ah, Takami-san, here you are!"_

Takami sighed. While she appreciated Yume, she was a tad too childlike for her tastes, but between her and Karasuba, she was still the better choice, as the Black Sekirei would probably kill anyone trying to infiltrate MBI before she could interrogate them.

Turning slightly, she caught sight of the Sekirei of Destiny. As her older sisters, she was an extremely attractive young woman, a trait that most of the Sekirei so far seemed to be exhibiting. Her body was slim but toned, in no small part thanks to her combative character, and her breasts, well...Suffice to say, many women would have sold their parents for a chance to have them. She had long, brown hair, tied in a ponytail, and was wearing her uniform, a tight black leather top, a pair of black gloves, a miniskirt and stockings.

"_What did you call me for, Takami-san?"_ asked the Sekirei, being her usual curious self.

"_Minaka asked that I investigate the car of the Dursleys, our English guests that caused the catastrophe earlier, and I think there might be someone in the car._

_-Oh, okay!_"

With Yume at her side, Takami then went to the car, and tried to open the door, which was still closed. A quick blast of light from Yume, and she opened said door...to freeze. There, hiding behind a seat, was a small boy, clutching his head and muttering the same words again and again. But that was not what attracted her attention. The boy was wearing clothes way too big for him, and which were looking quite old. When she had seen the Dursleys, they had all been wearing fancy clothes (way too fancy, in her opinion), which had to have been quite expensive. The fact that she had just found a child in their car, one that seemed to come from a very poor family, rang a few alarm bells in Takami's head.

As she stood there, frozen, the boy tried to peek through his fingers, and she caught a glimpse of green, which disappeared way too quickly for her to be sure about what it was. She quickly examined what she could see of the boy, and frowned. He was very thin, and while she wasn't sure how young he was, she was quite sure that a child his age should not have been this thin. What's more, for what she had seen from the Dursleys, the males in their family tended to be vastly overweight, so a male child that was not at least fat seemed strange.

"_Oh, what a cute little boy!"_ cooed Yume, her face lighting up in delight, and her exclamation bringing her out of her thoughts. Though, the most interesting reaction was the boy's one: when he heard the Sekirei, he flinched and tried to back away, a feat rendered impossible by the fact he was already currently curled up as close as he could to the other side of the car.

Harry was terrified. He had been found, and now his Uncle would beat him when he'd come back! Not only that, but the woman with white hair had a scary face, and the other one was way too enthusiastic for his tastes. After all, usually, when people were enthusiastic around him, it usually meant something bad was going to happen to him.

Then, the woman with a scary face said something that he didn't understand.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand."

Normally, he shouldn't have said anything, but with the Dursleys, he had learnt it was better to be polite with people. They tended to hurt you less if you did.

The woman looked thoughtful, and then spoke again, this time using an oddly accentuated English.

"Do you understand me now?"

Harry nodded, not too sure if the woman wanted him to talk or not. Better play it safe. After all, he had gotten quite a few beatings and days without food for speaking when he shouldn't.

"Good. My name is Takami Sahashi, and I'm a scientist at MBI. The lady behind me is Yume.

-Hi~." said the pretty woman, waving at him with a smile.

The two waited patiently, apparently waiting for him to say something, but he was not stupid enough to speak when not addressed, so he kept silent. That seemed to make the Takami woman impatient, and she took a few puffs from her cigarette before asking:

"And who are you?

-Harry Potter, Miss.

-Potter? Not Dursley?

-No, Miss. They were my Aunt and my Uncle.

-Oh. Well, I'm sorry to tell you that, but your uncle, your aunt and your cousin had an accident this morning. They are dead."

At that, everything came to a halt. They were dead? He was free then? There wouldn't be more beatings? He wouldn't be called Freak anymore? He wouldn't have to maw the lawn, cook, or clean the house? There wouldn't be any more Harry Hunting?

The last thing he heard before blacking out was the voice of the woman with white hair calling him.

Takami was honestly surprised about the boy-Harry. Unlike his cousin, he was very polite. However, she couldn't quite place it, but there seemed to be something...wrong, for a lack of a better term, with him. He seemed to be extremely shy, which was another big difference with the meat bag that was his cousin, and was apparently quite scared of Yume and her.

But when she told him his relatives were dead, she had been expecting shock, denial, sadness, or any of the normal reactions that such an event could cause in a child, but certainly not what happened. Instead of that, the boy had looked as if for the first time in his life, he was at peace, and his breathing had quickened, to the point of he had started to hyperventilate.

"Harry? Can you hear me? Harry, try to calm down, and take deep breaths."

However, the boy didn't seem to hear her, and as she went to grab his shoulders to shake him out of his shock, he collapsed. Swearing, she turned to Yume.

"Get him to Lab 3, I'll be right there."

With a nod, the Sekirei picked up the boy, and darted to the elevator, yet she managed to do so without shaking the boy like a rag doll.

Takami turned back to the car, and quickly went for the papers concerning its' renting. She found nothing that could suggest that it was an attempt of foreign spying, but she still kept the papers, she'd submit them to MBI's legal team to be safe. The car would be dismounted and every piece of it examined thoroughly, just to be sure that they had missed nothing.

Deciding that there wasn't much more that she could do, she went to take the elevator. Something wasn't right with the boy, and she'd be damned if she didn't figure it out!

_"Run that by me again?"_

Takami was currently in Lab 3 with Yume, Harry's form laying on a cot and breathing peacefully, though every now and then he whimpered and turned.

MBI's head geneticist had barely made it to the lab before Yume had popped up and dragged her to the boy, her usual calm face a mask of anger. She had almost dropped her unlit cigarette at the sight. Yume, despite being a member of the Disciplinary Squad, had never shown anger to anyone or anything. She sometimes expressed disappointment and sadness when she had to kill soldiers, but never anger.

_"As I said, Takami-san, I think that Harry was abused by his relatives."_

The Sekirei was unusually serious, and Takami didn't like it one bit. If she was right, then quite a few things concerning Harry became easy to explain: the shyness, the politeness, the relief on his face when he had been told of the death of his relatives...But she wanted to be sure of it.

Taking out her cellphone, she gazed at the picture of her son and daughter. While she knew she wasn't the best mother around, she was proud to say that she did her best to raise them as responsible contributors to society. She may not show it much, but she loved her children deeply, which was why she had refused that Minaka take any part in their life. She wasn't about to let him corrupt her children!

Closing her phone, she sighed warily. She firmly believed that no child should ever be subjected to abuse, a notion all the more hypocritical considering her own involvement with the Sekirei Plan.

_"Why do you think that, Yume?_

_-When I was carrying him, I managed to get his weight. He barely weighs fifteen kilos (__**i.e: 33 pounds**__)! And when I was bringing him here, he was saying something like "I won't do it anymore! I promise!" , and he has something on his back, but I didn't have time to see what it was."_

She was aghast. Fifteen kilos? That was way too little for a child of his size! And the mention that he had something on his back made her blood run cold. _Oh, sweet Kami, please make it that Yume is wrong!_

Turning to the still unconscious form of the English boy, she decided it was better to check now, while he was still unconscious, otherwise he might not want to talk about it if Yume was right. But deep down, she really, _really_ hoped that she was wrong.

Delicately pushing the boy so that he'd be laying on his stomach, she took a pair of scissors and cut the shirt open. Considering its' state, she was surprised that anyone would be willing to wear it. As the fabric fell, she dropped the scissors, which made a loud CLUNK! when they hit the ground, not that either her or Yume noticed, too shocked by the sight before them to even notice their ears were sending them signals.

Harry's back was covered by scars. In fact, there wasn't a part of his back that wasn't covered by scar tissue. Some were barely noticeable, being too old and having already healed to the point they were merely white lines, but most were still vivid and red, some even looking like they weren't even a week old. Some looked like cuts, others were more like burns, and some looked as if the skin had been torn from the muscle. This was not abuse, this was plain torture.

There was no word to describe how Takami was feeling then, she was horrified by the sight, disgusted by how monstrous her fellow humans could be, and most of all, she was angry. If the Dursleys hadn't been dead, she'd have sic Karasuba on them right then. A feeling likely shared by Yume, considering how the very air seemed to be warping and distorting behind her. She was well aware that if she didn't fear it would wake up Harry, the Sekirei'd be screaming her lungs off and breaking things left and right.

_"How...how?!"_ she managed to croak, her voice thick with emotion. _"How can someone do that to a child?!"_ she asked, her voice bordering on hysterical.

Takami, while she did not say anything, agreed completely with the Sekirei. If the abuse had been on a teenager, she'd had understood better, not that she'd agree with it any more, but a child? This was not the result of a few nights of drunken violence, this was the result of daily torture. It was a miracle that Harry hadn't become completely crazy, and even then she was sure he had some of the most impressive mental scars of the people she knew, and she knew quite a few soldiers that Minaka had hired.

She saw Number 08 walk to the side of the cot, and place a hand on the whimpering boy's forehead. From where she was, she could see the face of the Sekirei of Destiny, and it was flooded with tears. Yume had always been someone quite empathetic, and seeing a child who had lived through such horrors at such a young age must have shaken her deeply. Especially considering how often she claimed that Love was the answer to everything. It would be difficult to believe in love after seeing the results of the abuse that Harry had suffered at the hands of his own family.

"Oh, my poor boy, what did these monsters do to you?"

Considering how the boy flinched away from the gentle touch, Takami was willing to bet that not only had he been tortured, but he must also have never been shown the slightest amount of physical affection. The reaction caused Yume to cry even more.

However, knowing he had been abused was all well and good, but what now? His family was dead, and all she had to search for any living relatives was a last name-Potter-, and considering how abused he had been, she really didn't think it'd be wise to return him to them. So, what to do?

Harry was confused. Why was he dreaming? The last thing he remembered was a scary lady talking to him before he passed out. What had she said?

And then everything came back, crystal clear. He had been waiting in the car as he had been ordered to, and then there was the scary lady that told him the Dursleys were dead! That meant no more beatings from his Uncle, no more doing chores all day for his Aunt, and no more Harry Hunting and beatings from Dudley! But then what? He was not stupid, he knew that now that the Dursleys were dead, he didn't have any family left, well, apart from his parents, but his Uncle and Auntie had told him that they had abandoned him, because they were freaks, and he was a freak too. He didn't know why his parents had left him to the Dursleys, but if they were freaks and he was too, then why had they abandoned him? When he had asked his Aunt, she had given him a scary smile and told him he was so much of a freak that even his freak parents didn't want him. He had spent the night crying in his cupboard after that.

Maybe he'd be sent to an orphanage? That would be good. If they sent him to an orphanage here, in Japan, then there'd be nobody to spread bad rumors about him. That, and Dudley wouldn't be there to bully anyone wanting to be his friend. He was sure that there'd be bullies, but at least they wouldn't be focused on him.

He felt something cold on his cheek. It was...water? Was it raining? But he didn't hear the sound of the rain. Instead, he was hearing...sobs? Someone was crying? Who?

Slowly opening an eye, he close it immediately, blinded by the crude white light. Blinking to chase the tears from his eyes, he opened them again, to find that he was laying on a cot, a medical one. Immediately, he felt cold, and trying to hug himself to keep his own heat, he felt that his chest was bare. That was bad, he started to panic. If anyone saw his scars, there'd be questions, and then he'd get punished again! Grabbing the first piece of fabric he could, he covered himself with the sheet he had been laying on. Only then did he look around.

He was in some kind of infirmary, or maybe something like a lab, he corrected himself after seeing a huge machine he had never seen in the back of the room. The room was quite big, and all white, which was the reason he had been reminded of an infirmary. After all, he had a rather intimate knowledge of infirmaries considering the regular beatings he had received, courtesy of Dudley and his friends, before his Uncle had reminded Dudley that bad things would happen if Harry was sent to the infirmary.

His attention was attracted by the sound of sobs, and he turned to see the pretty woman he had seen earlier, when the scary woman had opened the door of the car he was in. He hadn't been able to see her well earlier, but now he could see that she was _very_ pretty, and that she had boobies like the ladies in the magazines Dudley stole with his friends, and that his Uncle confiscated, only to keep them for himself. He may have been a kid, but he could appreciate someone with a good figure!

"Err...Miss, why are you crying? Are you hurt somewhere?"

The sobs stopped, and the lady looked at him through red eyes. For some reason, she was looking at him funny, as if she couldn't understand what he had said. That thought made him blink. Of course she wouldn't understand English, she was Japanese! But how was he supposed to communicate with her then?

"I see you're awake now, Harry."

The voice on his left made him jump, and he quickly turned his head to see who had spoken. It was that scary woman with white hair!

She had probably noticed his fear, as she gave him a reassuring smile, which made him feel slightly better. Slightly. He had sharp instincts, and his instincts were telling him to be careful to never cross this woman, ever.

Not trusting his voice and out of habit, he nodded. Considering that all of his life, if he had spoken before someone had talked to him, he'd get a beating. '_Freaks don't talk to normal people unless absolutely necessary!_' his Uncle said. Well he had learnt the lesson, and he wasn't going to slip now!

The woman was looking at him strangely, and he couldn't quite place what her expression meant. He had never seen one like this on his Uncle or his Aunt's face, so he didn't quite understand it. So he waited. If there was something she wanted, she'd ask soon enough. He had a lot of patience, he had to, so he wouldn't be the one to crack first.

"So, I'd like to reintroduce my friend and myself. This crying lady, here, is Yume, and I am Takami Sahashi. So far so good?"

Harry nodded. The scary...Takami looked pleased. She then started to lean slightly towards him.

"Harry, do you remember what I said when we met? About your relatives?

-Yes, Miss Takami. You said that my Uncle, my Aunt and Dudley were dead."

Takami nodded again, apparently pleased for some reason. Yume was sitting next to him, and a little too close for him to be comfortable with, but he forced himself to deal with it. After all, they couldn't be as bad as the Dursleys...could they?

"Now Harry, I'm sure you probably don't want me to explain the intricacies of the system to you, but right now we have a little problem. You see, we don't have any information on you, it's like you don't exist, so we are faced with an unique dilemma: what are we going to do with you?"

He blinked. And then he blinked again. Somehow he was getting a really bad feeling about what was happening. She had just said the same thing his Aunt said each time he had made a mistake, and he had to remind himself that Takami was not his Aunt, or he would already be apologizing. His Aunt had a bad habit of burning him whenever he made a mistake, and between his Uncle and her, he really didn't know what was worse, the beatings or the burns?

"Harry, can you tell me who your parents are?"

He was brought out of his musings by Takami, who was looking funny again.

"I don't know, Miss Takami. My Aunt said my mother was a whore, and that my father was a no good drunk. She said that they didn't want me, so they left me to the Dursleys."

A loud CRACK made him jump, and when he turned his head, he saw that Yume, who had been fiddling with an object he didn't know, had broken it in two. What scared him though, was the look of absolute fury on her face, and the fact that the object she had broken was in metal. Just how strong was she?!

The head geneticist of MBI was twitching. More accurately, she was trying to maintain a semblance of friendliness, so that Harry wouldn't be scared out of his mind. A task that was only made possible by her regular dealings with Minaka, otherwise she might have exploded right then and there. What kind of people tell a child his mother is a whore and his father a drunkard who didn't want him?

Yume had a reaction she had wanted to mimic, but she had restrained herself for Harry's sake. Said kid was quickly rising in her mind from "polite" to "someone who deserved respect". She didn't know how he could still be sane, and she highly doubted that his mind was anywhere around "normal", but to be able to maintain a polite and considerate personality after what he had lived was nothing short of a miracle. Any other child exposed to things like Harry had lived would have turned far worse than him, that was for sure.

"Harry, I'm sorry to hear this. But did she give you their names? Something that we could use to track them down to see if they could take you in?

-I'm sorry, Miss Takami. She always talked about 'Her' when she was talking about my mother, and 'that freak' when she was talking about my father."

The idea in itself was laughable. Parents who let their child live with the Dursleys were obviously not fit to be his guardians, that was for sure. However the alternative would be to send him to an orphanage, unless MBI managed to track down other living relatives. Right now though, she wasn't sure it would be a good idea. Considering that Harry probably had a lot of mental problems stemming from his upbringing, it would be better to send him to a family able to care for him, something that he had apparently lacked so far.

Deciding to let the topic of his parents drop, she steeled herself, as she was about to bring up the crux of the problem. Seeing that Yume had managed to regain some semblance of composure, she decided to broach the topic now, that would allow her to get it mostly out of the way.

"Harry" she paused. How was she supposed to say it? Oh well, might as well try to be direct, but careful in her wording.

"Harry... Can we talk about what's on your back?"

_Bad idea_, she realized, when the boy immediately went rock still, and his face became an emotionless mask.

"Harry, I'm sorry, but when you were unconscious, I checked your body to see if you were hurt. You know that boys your age don't usually have as many scars as you have, do you? Did your Uncle give you those?"

No answer. Harry was really starting to scare her. How the Hell did a child that had to be five at most manage to pull a perfect poker face?!

"Harry, I want you to know that I'm your friend. I don't want to hurt you, I want to help you."

Ah, a reaction. Though it was not what she had expected. Instead of looking hopeful, he looked confused.

"Why would you want to help me? Nobody wants to help me. Freaks don't deserve help."

Frea-?

"_OH THOSE LITTLE SHITS! I SWEAR THAT IF THEY WEREN'T DEAD, I'D KILL THEM NOW! TO CALL A CHILD A FREAK?! WHAT KIND OF MONSTER WERE THEY?!"_

A hand on her shoulder brought her back to reality. At some point during her rant, Harry had hidden himself under the cot and was currently trembling in fear, the sheet he had taken to cover himself over his small frame. Now Yume, who was looking furious herself, was shaking her and telling her to calm down since she was scaring the boy.

Dropping in her chair, she watched as Yume managed to convince Harry to get out of under the cot, an impressive feat considering how angry Takami could feel her. She watched as the Sekirei gently caressed his head, that is until Harry shifted uncomfortably.

"Ah, you don't like it?

-I don't know, Miss Yume. It's just...well, weird. Usually the only times someone touches me is when my Aunt burns me, when my Uncle beats me, and when Dudley and his friends hit me."

_Each time_, Takami mused, _ each time I think it can't get worse I'm proven wrong. Seriously, how he hasn't become a mini-Karasuba I don't know._ _But I'll be damned if I don't at least know how much physical trauma he has gone through._

"Harry, I think that for now you'll stay here, at MBI. I want to check a few things, so would you mind letting me run some physical tests?"

The boy simply nodded. There was no "Will it hurt?", no question, he simply nodded.

Harry was confused. Takami and Yume had said they wanted to help him, and that made no sense. Freaks didn't deserve help, Freaks were nothing, they were abnormal and deserved whatever they got. There had never been anyone who wanted to help him, the only ones who had ever done anything for him were the school nurses, and they had only done so because it was their job. They had been quite clear on how much they despised him, though he had no idea why.

Right now, he was laying on a cot, and a machine was scanning him. Takami had told him she wanted to get as much physical data she could, so he had agreed. It was very comfortable, something he was not used to. Usually, when he slept, his cupboard was not very comfortable, and he was not allowed to take anything that may make it more comfortable with him.

So he simply lay there, waiting for the physical examination to end.

Takami was not very happy right now. After witnessing the external signs of physical abuse, and several signs of psychological abuse, she now had proof that Harry had several bones that had healed improperly, meaning they would have to break them again to set them correctly. It was a small mercy that he was still young, his bones were still growing so there should be less consequences than there would be for an adult or a teenager.

"_Takami, what are you going to do for Harry?"_ Yume asked.

The Sekirei had been oddly silent since she had decided to have a physical examination of the boy. Takami couldn't really begrudge her, after all Harry was the proof that her beliefs were not always true. After all, how could Love be the answer for someone like Harry, who probably knew the word but not the meaning behind it?

"_I don't know. I think it would be best to make sure he has a loving family, but I doubt Minaka will agree._

_-What does Minaka have to do with this?_

_-He's the one who sent me to check on the car we found Harry in, and considering that he has no official existence, at least if we believe our databases, then I don't know what that idiot might do. He might even want us to eliminate him for all we know."_

Yume grimaced at that, and Takami couldn't blame her. They both knew very well that Minaka, for the idiot he seemed to be, was a genius who greatly disliked the idea of anyone who didn't belong to MBI knowing of the Sekirei, and Harry had already met Yume.

Sighing, she stopped the machine. She would need these radios to ask for a doctor to come up with an appropriate planning to heal Harry, both physically and mentally. She may have been an expert when it came to genetics, but health care was not her domain.

She went to the room where Harry had been, waiting in an hospital gown (his clothes had been discarded as soon as he had taken them off, seriously those things were just foul). She tried to explain as clearly as she could the procedures he would need to heal, but Harry was a smart kid, and he didn't have trouble understanding.

"But how will I pay? I mean...I don't have money.

-~Weeelll, how about working for me, Harry-kun?"

Takami clenched her fists. Why now? Why did the fool have to come and ruin everything?

"_Now, listen Minaka...What is Karasuba doing here?_"

Karasuba, the Black Sekirei, was having an interesting day. Apparently some foreign guests had triggered the security, resulting in their deaths and some of the scientists', but she really didn't care about those humans. Actually, she had stopped caring for about everything ever since Takehito had chosen Miya over her, but now that she worked with Yume, she had discovered that she could still feel emotions, especially hatred. That woman spent all day spewing nonsense about Love, about how Love made everything possible, even though she knew her personal history. It was like she was taunting her, and more than once she had wanted to kill the offending idiot.

Now, Minaka had asked her to come with him, as they apparently had another guest. She was used to that, the fool always liked to use her as a scarecrow to show his guests that they shouldn't mess with MBI. She was ready to stand behind him and give her usual sadistic smile, like she always did, but she felt that something was wrong. Ever since that morning she had felt a nagging feeling, something that she wasn't to, she felt a pull towards a certain place and that place was where they were headed now. She was firmly decided to kill whoever made her feel uncomfortable, and to Hell with Minaka. After all, a small "accident" was not unprecedented, and it would be a shame if their guest was to try and take away some MBI material.

As they got out of the elevator, she had to pause. What the HELL was that pull?! It was ten time worse than before!

"_Oi, Minaka!_

_-Yes?_

_-Who's the guest this time?"_

He must have guessed her discomfort, as he simply gave her that superior smirk she hated.

"_You'll see, but I think that you will find him...interesting, to say the least."_

With that, he resumed his walk, his white cape billowing dramatically behind him.

Karasuba's left eye twitched. Oooh, how she hated it when he did that!

Finally, they arrived in the area dedicated to the Sekirei's physicals, which housed some of the most advanced medical devices in the world, which was quite understandable as MBI was the one to create and produce them, basing their work on what technology they could understand on the ship that had brought the Sekirei to Earth.

Opening one of the doors, she heard a voice that she recognized belonged to Takami.

"...so we're going to draw this schedule up, and then we'll get you all better!"

_Meh, looks like she's talking to a child,_ she mused.

"But how will I pay? I mean...I don't have money."

Oh? Apparently it was indeed a child. From the voice it sounded like a little boy, though she wouldn't be able to tell much more, seeing as she disliked mankind, and had no wish to get anywhere close to children. To her, children were innocent beings, but she couldn't help but feel slightly disgusted by their carefree attitude, their ignorance of all the basics of life.

"~Weeelll, how about working for me, Harry-kun?"

What the Hell was Minaka talking about?

"_Now, listen Minaka...What is Karasuba doing here?_

-_Oh, you aren't happy to see me Takami?_

_-Karasuba, leave now!"_

Okay, she had not expected to see Yume here. Her rival usually spent her free time observing those lowly humans. And she was surprised by the amount of venom in her voice. Usually she was only giving her the "I'm disappointed in you" look, but now she was actually talking as if she hated her. _An interesting development, to say the least_. She watched as her rival got up and shielded someone who was behind her.

That was when she saw HIM. He was a human child, probably no older than five, and he was looking at her through half-broken glasses, but she could still see his eyes. They were of the deepest green she had ever seen, and then she SAW. This child, thanks to some twist of fate, was like her: alone, hating the world for what it had done to him, and all it would take to make him into a magnificent killer was some time and training.

It was the very first time in her life that she felt that someone UNDERSTOOD her, while Takehito was gentle with her, he couldn't understand her, nor her feelings. Oh, he had been close to, but this child... This child was so similar to her it wasn't even funny! She could see it in his eyes, the pain of being all alone, of losing everything.

Her breathing quickened, and she took a step forward. She didn't care that Minaka, Takami, or even Yume were there. All she knew is that she WANTED that child like nothing before, she didn't care he was a child, she didn't care that he looked scrawny, she didn't care she didn't know who he was. .HIM.

By now everyone in the room had noticed her strange behavior, Minaka was giving her a triumphant smirk, Takami looked aghast, and Yume looked angry. But she didn't care, she wouldn't care, so long as that child was hers.

Harry was surprised. First he had been told that his bones were not as they should be, that he would need to have them broken again to make them better, then there was this weird man asking him to work for him...But all that didn't matter. Behind the strange man was a woman, a beautiful woman. She did not have a figure as developed as Yume, but she was still beautiful.

She had long grey hair tied in a ponytail, squinted grey eyes, and she was carrying a sword. She was wearing the same uniform than Yume, so he supposed she was working with her. But what mattered to him was the feeling of absolute _power_ this woman was exuding. He may have been a child, but even he could tell with one glance that this woman was dangerous, that she could kill him if he so much as looked at her wrong.

He was fascinated. This woman was not only beautiful, she was everything he wanted to be! During all his time at the Dursleys, all he had ever wanted was power. Power to do everything he wanted, power so great that he wouldn't need anyone, that he'd be able to protect himself, power to hurt those that hurt him.

Yume was trying to protect him from her, but he didn't care. He got out of behind her, and walked past Takami and Minaka, and looked at the woman in the eyes. He could see it... This woman was like him. She was not weak like him, no, but she was hurt, he could see it in her eyes. They were like his own, hollow and devoid of life. He saw these eyes look him over, and settle on the scars she could see on the highest part of his back. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw them, but he saw something else flicker in her eyes. He was not sure what it was, but he liked it.

"Who are you?" he asked.

He heard Takami suck in a breath behind him, and Yume advanced towards him, though he didn't know why. He continued to fix the woman in the eyes curiously.

He watched as the woman crouched to allow her eyes to be on the same level as his, as she gave him a scary smile. A part of his brain told him to flee in fear, but another one, the one distorted by years of abuse and neglect, was telling him to stand his ground. After all, what did he have to fear? There was little she could do to him that he hadn't endured and survived.

"I am Karasuba. And who are you?

-Harry Potter, Miss Karasuba.

-What would you do if I told you I find you interesting, Harry?"

He tilted his head on the side, confused.

"Why would a freak like me be interesting?

-Harry, you're not a freak!" Yume shouted, but he didn't pay her any mind.

The woman, Karasuba, looked please by his answer.

"You ARE interesting, Harry. VERY interesting, even." she purred.

Karasuba was in Heaven. This boy was PERFECT! She had to call in all her experience and willpower not to wing herself on him right then and there. She had seen the scars on his body, and that had almost been too much for her. A child this young, so badly scarred? It was almost assured that he would become like her, that he would UNDERSTAND her! And to top the cake, it seemed as if Yume had a soft spot for him! There was no way she was going to miss the occasion to get one over her rival!

"Karasuba, get away from him NOW!" shouted Yume, as she approached the two of them, apparently concerned with the safety of the boy.

She was about to take out her sword to give the noisy bitch a piece of her mind, when she shivered. When she realized that for a split second, she had felt _fear_, she turned towards the only person in the room who could have made her feel afraid. Minaka was out, he was an idiot, Takami couldn't scare her, and Yume was on an even ground with her, which meant that only the child could have caused that kind of reaction out of her.

He was currently glaring at Yume.

" .alone!"

It was at that particular moment that she felt it. Right before Yume could say anything more, she was blasted in the wall with extreme force, to the point where you could hear the sound of her ribs breaking. Her ribs were not the only things to break though, Minaka's glasses exploded, and the machine that had taken the radios of his body made a cracking noise as smoke came out of it.

_Yesss, _ she mused, bemused by the destruction this human child had caused, _ very interesting indeed._ With this in mind, she caught the boy in her arms as he was about to pass out, and cradled him to her chest awkwardly. _You are MINE, and I'll be damned again if I let anyone take you away from me._

Takami couldn't believe her eyes. Not only had Karasuba tolerated Harry's presence, but she looked like she enjoyed it! She was acting so out of character since she had seen the boy that it was creepy. As strange as it was, she would much have preferred it if she had insulted him and/or tried to kick him. At least she would have been sure that she wasn't dreaming.

She saw Yume advance on her fellow Disciplinary Squad member, and she was about to try and calm everyone down when she felt a chill crawl up her spine. It was eerily similar to the one she felt each time Karasuba went on a rampage and she got too close to the bloodthirsty Sekirei, but a glance towards the grey-haired woman showed that it hadn't come from her, if her surprised look was any indication. However she saw said woman look down on Harry and grin, which confused and worried her.

To say that she was utterly baffled when Yume was thrown in a wall with enough force to break several of her ribs was an understatement. As a scientist, she had taken quite a shock when she had learnt about the Sekirei and their abilities, which defied everything she thought she knew, but at that time she had at least the possibility to put it as a feat reserved to their species. Now, though, she was faced with someone she had thought was an ordinary _human_ boy, who had apparently used some kind of telekinesis to send a single number Sekirei, a being that could face of armies by itself, into a wall with enough force to break some of her bones.

She was still considering the sheer impossibility of what she had just witnessed when she saw something that was completely, utterly, mind-blowingly impossible.

Karasuba had cradled Harry in her arms, and was looking at his unconscious form with love and devotion of all things. Or at least something that resembled love, she wasn't sure the Black Sekirei was able to understand love anymore. But the fact that she had, by herself, initiated physical contact, with a child no less, was something not even she would have imagined. Karasuba's hatred for everything was well-known, as well as the fact that she held everyone save a very restricted number of people in the highest contempt, and even those people were little more that people she held a special dislike for.

Finally, she was able to compose herself, if only slightly, and croak:

"_H-how?_

_-Indeed Takami-kun, I must admit that such a feat is very interesting."_ said Minaka, who after looking slightly surprised, had returned to grinning like a madman. "_Perhaps a few tests..."_

The word "test" was enough to make Takami regain her composure and glare at Minaka.

"_Listen, Minaka, I don't CARE what you think, you won't lay a finger on this kid! And if you do, so help me I'll castrate you myself!"_

Minaka merely grinned and was about to retort, when another voice, one that neither of them had expected, spoke up.

"_I will keep him."_

At that, both Takami and Minaka turned to look at Karasuba, who was awkwardly cradling Harry in her arms, the bloodthirsty Sekirei grinning madly. She was looking at the boy in her arms with an intensity that made Takami uncomfortable. Usually, people did not interest the Black Sekirei, so she had little doubt that letting Harry anywhere close to her was a bad idea, especially considering his background.

"_Karasuba, I don't think that it would be a good idea to..."_

THUNK!

Faster than she could see, and certainly too fast for someone who was holding a child in her arms, Karasuba had drawn her sword and stuck it in the wall next to Takami, cutting her cheek. The Sekirei was still smiling, but this time it was a smile that promised unimaginable pain to whoever would dare to contradict her.

"_I don't care what you THINK, Takami, I WILL have him, one way or another."_

A knock on the door stopped the situation from escalating further, but Takami glared at Karasuba, promising herself that she would not let Harry anywhere close the Sekirei if she could help it.

Meanwhile, Minaka, as the mad genius he was, had been smiling all along and had opened the door, revealing a young man looking like he would like to be everywhere but there.

"_Yes, what is it?~"_ asked Minaka, who, to Takami, looked quite curious about why he would be interrupted.

The young man whispered a few words to Minaka, before handing him an enveloppe and bowing before he hastily closed the door.

Karasuba was having an very good day for once. Not only had she found someone that would be able to understand her, and who would make a great Ashikabi after some training on her part, but she had gotten to see Yume, who loved to prattle about Love, take a blow from a child that had sent her into a wall. Well, she had gotten up almost instantly, but still, it was the action that counted! And here in her arms, was the person who had illuminated her day and her existence, the first person to ever share her disgust for the world, her hatred and her need of destruction. He was also the very first person to even _think_ about defending her, and she had to say, it had made her heart feel warm to know that this child had wanted to defend her against Yume.

Takami could object as much as she wanted, she was not going to let her take the child away from her, oh no. Such a fine specimen of Ashikabi was not going to get wasted by the stupid human morals, or Yume's Love. Well, she didn't think that there was any way that they'd manage to change the boy much with such arguments, considering that he most likely had no idea of what Love was supposed to be.

Looking at the unconscious form of the boy she had no doubt that she'd found her Ashikabi, her "Destined One" as Yume so fondly called them. It was strange for her to feel that she'd be unable to live without this boy, after all she was probably one of the most powerful beings on this pathetic planet. Normally the idea of being bonded to one of the weaklings that called themselves human to be foolish, but this one...This one may be different. She didn't know how, but he had managed to seriously harm Yume, who, for what she could tell, had some difficulty breathing after having been sent into the wall. It was a shame she didn't know what this power was, because she fully intended to make the boy develop it. There was no telling how powerful he would be when he'd be fully grown, considering how powerful he seemed to be already.

"_Indeed, this explains quite a few things..."_

She ticked an eyebrow. Minaka was looking pensive, something that very rarely happened. He was holding the letter that pathetic employee had delivered, and she had to blink at the state of the letter. In fact, it seemed that the letter hadn't been typed but written, and that the paper was old parchment.

"_Minaka? What's this?"_ asked Takami.

The white-haired man looked up from the letter, and focused on the boy in her arms, serious for the first time in months.

"_This letter-"_he showed the piece of parchment to the three women,"_ states that the little display this boy has shown us earlier is magic._

_-Magic? Please, Minaka, don't be ridiculous! I know that some Sekirei have some strange abilities, but this boy is not a Sekirei, and these abilities are certainly not magic. Perhaps some form of psychic power, but not magic!" _snorted Takami.

"_Ahh, but Takami-kun, this letter, from what I have been told, was tied to an owl's leg and is addressed to a certain Mr. Potter, Physical Examination Room, fifty-seventh floor, MBI Tower. I find difficult to believe that someone would have been able to know that Harry-kun was in this room, and send this letter in a matter of moments after the incident."_

Karasuba blinked. Indeed, it was a little too precise to be merely a joke, and the timing was way too tight to be merely a coincidence, but magic? However, she was distracted by the boy shifting in her arms, as he opened his eyes and looked at her through his half-broken glasses.

Green. Eyes so green that she can't help but be drawn to them. A green so pure and so vivid, yet so empty. These eyes may have been one day full of life, but now they were haunted and empty. She had to repress a shiver of pleasure at the lack of emotion in these eyes.

"Why?" the boy asked.

"Because you're like me." she answered, watching with pleasure as Yume stiffened but chose to shut up, as the memory of what happened the last time she tried to separate the boy from her was still vivid.

"Ah, sorry to cut this sweet moment, but can you tell us how you sent Yume into the wall earlier?"

The boy blinked.

Harry was pleasantly surprised to find himself in the arms of the beautiful lady with grey hair. _Karasuba,_ he remembered. He liked her. Somehow, he knew that she was like him, without anyone to care for her, without anyone to help her. But she was _strong_. And he wanted to learn to be strong. Now that his relatives were dead, he intended to become strong enough to never again be treated like a slave, to be strong enough to be able to live on his own.

Then the man who was dressed funny asked him how he sent Yume into a wall. He shifted in Karasuba's arms, trying to see how much damage he had done, and indeed, the wall was cracked, and the lady from earlier was holding her side in a motion that reminded him of himself after a bad beating.

"You should see a doctor you know.

-Eh?

-If you don't see a doctor, it's going to hurt for weeks.

-Oh, yeah.

-I...I'm sorry. It's my fault, things always happen when I'm angry."

That seemed to have caught everyone's interest, as he could see the man looking at him intently, Takami was staring alternatively at the wall then at him, and Yume was trying to smile and failing quite miserably considering her injuries.

"Oh? So things like this have happened before?" the man asked.

Harry didn't like the way the man was looking at him, but he answered nonetheless. After all, freaks were expected to answer when people asked them questions.

"Not exactly...One time there was a teacher who was mean to me, his wig turned blue. When I told my Uncle, he took his belt and beat me, he said that he would beat the freakishness out of me. Then there was the time Dudley and his friends were hunting me, I woke up on the roof of the building but I didn't remember climbing there. As punishment I spent a week in my cupboard without food."

When he finished he noticed that Takami was looking angry again, Yume too, and the man was grinning. As for Karasuba, she was smiling, and although he should feel afraid, he knew that he didn't have to.

"Weelll, Harry-kun, it seems that you are a wizard, if this letter is to be believed!

- A wizard, sir? B-but I'm Harry. I mean, I'm _just_ Harry. I...I don't want to be a freak!

-Nonsense! If you can use magic, be proud about it! Men have _died_ trying to obtain the ability to use magic, Harry-kun. So why deny your own powers if you can use them? Imagine everything you could do if you could control your powers!"

Harry blinked. And then he blinked again. It made sense actually. He had never heard of people able to use _real_ magic, so that made him an exception, that made him _different_. If he could use magic, and nobody else could, then he'd be able to use his powers to do whatever he wanted!

"Err, sir? Do you know where I could learn magic?

-No, but leave it to me, Harry-kun!"

He really didn't like that man's smile.

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**So? What did you think? Good? Bad? You want to burn me to the stake for mixing those two universes together? Leave a review!**


	2. Chapter 2-Welcome to the magical world

**Hello there, it's me again!**

**Now, I have received a few reviews I have to adress first, so please bear with it.**

**To Dwayne: Yes, I do agree with you, I made the Dursleys far more horrible than they were in canon and should be. Now, this was going to be developed much later in the story (not that much developed, but it would have been explained), but I think I have to spoil you all a bit: the Dursleys, were not in fact, so bad. They were originally like in canon, meaning that they would have made him sleep in the cupboard and be sometimes physically forceful, nothing more. The reason they grew to be so bad was in fact, unwillingly caused by Dumbledore. Like in canon, he used blood wards to protect Harry, and it is unfortunately not a very well-known domain of magic, also illegal, and as such, even him didn't know about the consequences or effects. Blood wards rely on the emotions of love between the person who gave the blood, the person the wards are tied to, and the people living underneath the wards. That means that Blood Wards feed as much on emotion as they do on magic to work, and unfortunately, the Dursleys' strong dislike of Harry warped the wards, causing in them to in turn affect their mind negatively, an effect only worsened by the passing years. That is why they weren't as bad when Harry was first dumped on their doorstep, but became in the end monsters, with only one target: Harry, as he too, was tied to the wards, and was the object of their hatred and fear. Hope this explains things a bit. Please understand, I usually have good reasons when I write something like this, and I do not exagerrate randomly just for the pleasure of it. The abuse he suffered is and will be important for the rest of the story.**

**To Fierdin: so, for the first part of my answer, refer to the answer to Dwayne, please. As for why they brought Harry with him, it was because the paranoia and fear induced by the wards made them think that if they left Harry, he would either destroy their house or booby-trap it (I cannot claim to understand what goes in their heads after six years of exposure to warped Blood wards). As for Dumbledore, I have already said it: HE IS HUMAN. He is not Evil, simply misguided, in that he thinks that he "knows better", and that his experience and praised genius allow him to make the hard decisions, and that he can do so, so long as he doesn't destroy or kill people. The fact that nobody thinks to contradict him only fuels that belief. As I have already said, he did not intend for the Dursleys to become that bad, or expected his Blood Wards to get corrupted and make the Dursleys into Harry-hating monsters. He did with what information he had, and he made mistakes.  
**

**As for his charisma: well, remember, at that point, Harry is a child, a scared child, that interests Karasuba because she knows he can see the world in a similar way than her. Yume, who still thinks that Love is the answer to anything, is interested in him only because she wants to show him how Love is the answer. Takami, well, she is a mother, and the idea of a child abused to Harry's levels doesn't sit very well with her. Later, Harry will NOT have a BIG Harem, as he will have three, maybe four Sekirei tops, with good reasons behind each of them. He will not become as popular as the Harry from _Fate Gamble_, though I feel that Lupine Horror did a pretty good job in explaining why Harry has so much success with the women he knows. He cares for them, and for most, it's a huge and welcome change. He is polite, and cares for them. Why shouldn't they be attracted to him? Though perhaps taking it a tad slower would have been good, but it's his/her story, it's not up to me to tell the author how he should write it, I can suggest, but the end choices come to the author of the story. So far, Lupine Horror is doing a fine job in my opinion, so if you don't like it, sorry, but that's your own opinion.**

**For his knowledge : the next chapter should answer you, and he may get some more knowledge later, but this will be the only BIG shortcut he gets. **

**Now, remember: THIS IS MY STORY. CONCTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS WELCOME, BUT IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT I WRITE, THEN DON'T READ IT. The point of posting stories here is to enjoy ourselves while writing and reading, nothing more, nothing less. **

**AND PLEASE REMEMBER, CRITICIZING ANOTHER STORY IN YOUR REVIEWS TO MINE WILL NOT CHANGE THE WAY THOSE AUTHORS WRITE THEM, SO PLEASE REVIEW THE STORY YOU WANT TO CRITICIZE, no offense, Fierdin.**

**Next point for those who haven't skipped yet to get to the chapter: Harry's future Sekirei will be Karasuba, Homura and Akitsu, maybe one more. At some point, I had thought about adding Miya, but that would be overkill, and she hates Karasuba anyway, a feeling that is certainly reciprocated. Besides, it would be interesting to wing her at the last moment to someone unexpected, idea to file for later.**

**Now, this chapter is the longest yet, hope you'll be interested in it. Interesting things happen in this one and the next, before the timeskip.**

**Now, ONTO THE STORY!**

**PS: I don't own either Harry Potter or Sekirei, but I do own the contents of this story.**

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02

**Introduction to the magic world**

Harry was sitting in the chair, waiting for the meeting to begin. Apparently, Minaka had already found someone who could tell him more about magic, and seeing as the point was for Harry to learn more about it, he had been asked to attend the meeting. Well, it was more like Karasuba had dragged him there, as she was apparently quite enthusiastic about the idea of learning about humans with powers, saying something about sekirei, or something like that.

It had been a week since Harry had been found by Takami, and he still had trouble believing his luck. When he had told Takami, Yume and Karasuba that the bedroom in the swordswoman apartment was way bigger than his cupboard, the two first had scowled while the last one had grinned. For some reason, the grey-haired woman found him fascinating, and spent a lot of time with him, which seemed to puzzle Takami. When he has asked Karasuba why, she had told him that had she not found him interesting, she'd have painted the walls red with his blood, which was what had always happened before. He had no trouble believing her.

Takami had made sure that he'd get enough to eat, and had asked a dietician to make sure his meals were healthy enough, and that he didn't damage his stomach by eating too much too soon. She had also started planning the interventions to fix his bones and body, but Minaka had told her to wait, as he believed that the magic users should have what it took to fox his body more efficiently and in less time than MBI. The white haired woman had huffed at that, but Harry could tell that she was curious too.

He had spent almost all week learning Japanese, seeing as not everyone understood English in the Tower. That, and he had gotten to learn about Karasuba, who had never been very far from him in the week he had been there. For some reason, she seemed attracted to him like a moth to a flame, and when he had told Takami, she had paled and muttered something about Ashi-something and how he was doomed. Something else of note was that he had visited Yume to apologize once again of having hurt her, but had found that she had gotten a lot better after a night of rest. When he had asked why, she had said it was a secret. He hadn't gotten the chance to ask for more, as Karasuba had barged in and dragged him back to his room. He didn't know why, but it looked like the two of them didn't really like each other. While Yume was nice, he preferred the grey-haired woman's company, as he felt that somehow she was like him. Yume was simply too innocent for him to get along with her.

The door to the meeting room opened, letting a grinning Minaka inside, with Takami following him, as well as a young woman, who looked barely twenty years old. Karasuba had been there with him the entire time, watching him like a hawk. He knew he should have felt scared, but the truth was that he really didn't care.

"Ah, now that everyone is here, we can begin! First of all, I believe introductions are in order! Everyone, this is Haruka Hasegawa, one of MBI's secretaries as of today."

The young woman got up and bowed, something Harry had now learnt to accept as normal, since it was a part of Japanese culture. She was not very tall, barely more than five feet tall, had mid-long black hair, a slim figure and hazel eyes.

"Miss Hasegawa apparently knows of the existence of magic, and can help us."

By now, everyone in the room was focused on the young woman, who looked distinctly uncomfortable. It was understandable, considering that her new boss, the head geneticist of MBI, and an obviously very dangerous woman were focused on her.

"Hello, I am a witch. I work for Japan's Ministry of Magic, and am here as Mr. Minaka has asked me to explain magic to you all. Normally, he would be the only one I would tell this to, but he has assured me that you are all involved and know about magic."

Nods around the table made her continue. Her eyes focused on Harry.

"I suppose that you were the one to use magic, am I right?"

He nodded. No point in lying if he wanted to learn to use his powers.

"And may I know your name?

-Harry Potter, miss."

The woman turned pale white, and rushed to his side, only to be stopped by the blade of a katana casually resting on her neck. A katana held by a grinning Karasuba.

"Now, now. There is no need to hurry like this, is there, Haru-chan?"

A gulp and a nod later, a very pale woman was looking at Harry's forehead.

"So it's true, you are Harry Potter. May I know what the Boy-Who-Lived is doing in Japan?

-The what who what now?"

Haruka looked at him as if he was an idiot.

"The Boy-Who-Lived! You! The only one who has survived the Killing Curse! The one to defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort!

-Umm...Sorry, I don't have a clue about what you're saying."

The black-haired woman just slumped into an empty seat next to him, looking lost.

"You mean you don't know?

-If you're talking about the fact that I can apparently use magic, I didn't have a clue until I sent someone into a wall with enough force to crack three of her ribs."

Haruka whistled, apparently impressed.

"That's some strong accidental magic. But the fact that you didn't know about magic is what concerns me the most. Let me a second to get my ideas straight, and I'll explain."

Taking deep breaths, the woman went to the head of the table, by Minaka's side, who was looking like he was greatly enjoying what was happening.

"Okay. First of all, you have to know that magic users have existed since ancient times. There is no exact date, but there is proof that wizards and witches have been around for several millennia, at least since around three thousand B.C. At first, they lived alongside Muggles, which are non magic users, just fine, but eventually, after the great Witches Hunts in Europe in the Middle Age, it was decided it was better to hide the existence of magic. Ever since then, there have been rules enforcing a Statute of Secrecy.

Now, on to you, Harry-kun. Before your birth, there was a Dark Lord, an evil wizard if you want, that terrorized the Wizardry world in England, his name was Lord Voldemort. The fear he and his followers inspired was so great that even today, English people refuse to speak his name, choosing to call him You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. One day, for a reason known only to him, he went to your parents house, with the intent to murder you. Your parents were out at the time, and he successfully cast the Killing Curse at you. The Killing Curse is a spell that kills with certainty when it connects with one's body, if you are wondering. Yet, for some unknown reason, the spell didn't kill you, and ended him instead. As you were the first one to survive a Killing Curse, you were nicknamed the Boy-Who-Lived, and hailed as a hero for defeating Voldemort, who is still considered as one of the most powerful Dark Lords of these last five centuries.

Now, the reason I am surprised you didn't know about magic is that the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, our equivalent of the ONU, Albus Dumbledore-sama, had you hidden away, "for your safety", those are his own words. He was the only one to know where you were, and people assumed you were trained to become a powerful fighter of the Light, as Dumbledore-sama is recognized as the Leader of the Light in the Wizardry World. Seeing as your parents supported his decision, nobody tried to pry further, as the Potters belonged to a long line of Light wizards."

At that, Harry snorted. In the short time he had been around Karasuba, he had gained a lot of confidence, as he had tried to copy her way of acting. The woman had noticed it, and encouraged him to do so.

"Actually, until a week ago, I was living with my abusive relatives. It was only because my whale of a cousin was stupid enough to activate some lethal securities that they died, and from then on, that I got to become MBI's guest."

Haruka looked horrified.

"Abusive? How bad was it?"

As an answer, he turned and took off his shirt to show his scars. One of the first things Karasuba had told him when she had seen he was uncomfortable with people seeing them was that he shouldn't be ashamed, but be proud, his scars showed he had lived through things most people would have trouble enduring and had remained sane. Well, she had said he was as sane as she was.

A thump! made him turn and see that Haruka had apparently fainted.

"Well, what about a pause?"

An hour later, a very pale and distraught Haruka was drinking a glass of sake.

"I don't know what Dumbledore-san was thinking when he left you with these...animals, but there has to be something very wrong with him if he thinks that these people would care for you. And you say he never came to check on you?

-Actually, I remember my Uncle saying something about the 'old freak' and that if he hadn't been threatened, he would never have taken me in. But that's about all."

Haruka took another sip of her sake. When she had been contacted, she had expected to explain some things to a muggle-born, perhaps to need to demonstrate magic, but this! This was certainly NOT what she had expected! She had seen immediately that the boy was not Asian, but she had not expected the Boy-Who-Lived to be the one she had to explain magic to!

She took a glance at the boy. From what she knew, he was seven, and yet he looked like a small five years old, he was unnaturally thin, and then there were his scars. Oh Kami! The scars! She had only seen a glimpse of them before fainting, but it was enough to turn her stomach. How the Boy-Who-Lived could still act like a human being was beyond her. Even with magic, most of the scars were too old or too big to remove.

"Anyway, if you want to learn about magic, I'll take you to Mahou no roji, or as you would call it in English, the Alley of Magic. But I think that before that, you should see a Healer."

A snort drew her attention to the woman with a katana and grey hair. Haruka had no idea why, but this woman scared the ever living shit out of her. It was like she was a prey, and that woman a very big predator waiting to pounce on her at the first occasion.

"Meh, of course he should see one! The faster he is back in shape, the faster I can train him!"

For a moment, Haruka seriously thought about asking what the woman was going to train him in, but the insane grin quickly stopped her. She was not sure she wanted to know.

Harry was amazed by what he was seeing. All around him were buildings in the purest Japanese style, and people were bustling right and left. With him was Haruka, who was leading the way, and Karasuba. Minaka had wanted to come, but Takami had forcefully dragged him back to his office, stating that he had a job to do.

Looking around, he could see that most of the people were wearing what he had learnt was traditional Japanese clothing. The women's clothing often had imprints on it, mostly floral, and he had to say, they looked beautiful, well, beautiful as long as Karasuba wasn't in his line of sight. Though he did wonder how good she would look in one of these clothes. Then again, he didn't think it was her style to wear things like that.

Haruka finally stopped in front of the biggest building in the Alley.

"This is Gringotts, the Wizards' bank. Remember one thing when we come here later: Goblins are a warrior race, so treat them with respect, otherwise they will not be very forthcoming. Most people in Japan have no problems with them now, but when Gringotts was first established in Japan and some Goblins emigrated from Europe, there were several grave accidents. Since they are a warrior species, they never back down when they feel they are right, and their warriors are extremely skilled, so be careful."

Harry didn't have to look at Karasuba to know that she was grinning. The woman was constantly with him, and it had allowed him to pick up quite a few things about her, the most noticeable being her absolute love of fighting. He may have been at MBI for only one week, but in that time, he had seen Karasuba try to pick fights repeatedly with Yume, who had miraculously recovered from the broken ribs he had given her in less than two days. There had also been one day she had been absent, and had only returned late at night, and when he had asked what she had been doing, she had answered that she had been having fun. The fact that her clothes were stained with blood was a dead giveaway about what kind of fun it was, and a normal person would probably been scared of the woman. However, due to his own upbringing, he did not care. She didn't seem to mean him harm, and he really did not care about the life of people he didn't know. After all, when had anyone other than Takami, Minaka, Yume and Karasuba done anything for him? More often than not, other people insulted him or hit him, so he did not see why he should care about them.

Karasuba, was, well, a mystery to him. He knew she loved fighting, but that was almost all. Everything else he had picked up was by his own observation skills. Takami and Minaka may think he was but a child, but he was a very intelligent and observant one. He had to, considering these two skills had been necessary to survive the daily life with the Dursleys. So it was no wonder that he had picked that both Yume and Karasuba had something wrong with them. It was obvious when you picked up the signs: Yume had healed from cracked ribs in two days, when it took him weeks for that, and he was supposed to be magical, so he had probably used magic to speed up the process. Then there was the fact that whenever Karasuba was talking to the armed men that guarded the building, he could literally sense their _terror_ at the sight of the grey-haired woman. And finally, each time he laid eyes on either Yume or her, his senses were screaming that something was wrong.

"-Harry-kun? Harry-kun, are you listening?

-Yes, sorry.

-Now, as I said, we are going to see a Healer. I don't know much about how much they can and cannot do for you, but I'm positive that they should be able to heal most of the damage done to your body.

-Is there any way to do more? Like enhancing his body beyond what a human can normally do?" suddenly asked Karasuba.

Haruka gave her a nonplussed look.

"If it was so easy, everyone would do it. There may be rituals for that, but we can't use them yet, Harry's magic is not strong nor stable enough to allow him to live through one. If you really wanted to go through one of them, you'd have to wait until you're at least twenty-one, as the final stabilization of your magic happens at that age. And those ritual always have a price to pay, and the bigger the effect, the bigger the cost for you will be."

Karasuba shrugged, still grinning.

"Oh well, it was worth asking."

Harry couldn't help but feel she was slightly disappointed. He didn't know her all too well, as his social skills were quite lacking, but that gave him an unique hindsight on Karasuba's character. Strangely, she strongly reminded him of himself, only that she had the means to unleash her resentment and hate of the world upon whomever she wanted with little consequence. It was like looking into a pond, and seeing a slightly distorted version of yourself. He made sure to never voice his concerns to the woman, he was quite sure that if he did, she would have killed him, just for the principle.

A few minutes later, they stopped again, this time in front of a traditional Japanese-looking building. The wood was painted with warm colors, and it gave Harry a sense of peace, though he had absolutely no idea where that had come from. He could see a few people wearing belts over traditional Japanese clothing, with several vials of liquids dangling from them, chatting animatedly before the building.

Haruka paused in front of the steps leading inside.

"This is Japan's magical Hospital, Mahou no Byoin."

A snort from Karasuba made both Harry and Haruka look at her questioningly. The grey-haired woman merely gave them a derisive smile.

"What? Calling a magical hospital, "magical hospital"? Do you people have no imagination?"

Haruka didn't really seem to have an answer, so she scratched her cheek before motioning to Karasuba and him to follow her inside. Harry, for his part, was starting to wonder about the average level of intelligence in the Wizardry World, as it seemed that they tended to be highly unimaginative when it came to naming things.

Luckily, Haruka had already arranged a meeting ahead of time. She had explained that if she had spoken his name to the secretary, there was a fifty percent chance that he would die suffocated in the next fifteen seconds. It had been hard to swallow that he was so famous for something he didn't even remember, and one of the first things he intended to do after shopping was learning as much about his reputation that he could. Seriously, he was only seven, and he was already hailed as a prodigy for what could very well have been an accident.

So the three of them, Haruka, Karasuba and Harry found themselves in a small examination room. Unlike what he had expected, it was not the cold, clinical environment he had sometimes caught glimpses of when Dudley watched TV, but rather an old-fashioned, wooden room. Most things were made of wood, and it gave off a warm feeling, the feeling of being at home (not that he could understand the feeling, he didn't even know what "feeling at home" was), the feeling that everything would be alright.

In front of them was an elderly woman, with a petite build, yet she had the eyes of a hawk, examining the three of them carefully. He had no idea how good she was at healing, but he was willing to bet that she was one of the best in the hospital, seeing how he felt almost naked before her gaze. She had black and grey hair, and while she was indeed old, her face did not give away any indication of how much. Harry prided himself in being observant, but he had no idea if the woman was sixty or over a hundred years old.

"Child, bed, now!" said the woman as soon as she finished her examination.

The hardwired reflexes taught to him by years of abuse kicked in, and before he even realized it, he was lying on the bed, not even recalling he moved.

The woman was instantly next to him, waving her wand in the air in complicated patterns. He could hear her whisper, but could not really place the words as they did not mean anything to him. He watched as light encompassed him, surrounded him, brushed against him. Surprisingly, it did not scare him, and he waited as the magic light prodded him, his body, and strangely something else within him, that he had never known had been there.

It took a long time, but finally the woman stopped chanting, and for the first time since he had seen her, he saw her look at him with respect and compassion. Looking at Haruka, she spoke and made a hand sign towards Harry, and the Ministry employee traduced.

"Young one, I have to admit, when I was told that the Boy-Who-Lived needed a medical check-up, I expected an arrogant brat who had fallen over and had broken his arm. I am ashamed to have thought so now. It is no wonder the Ministry asked for old Yuko to get out of her retirement.

Now, I can heal your bones, I can heal your sight, I can heal your body, but there are two things I cannot do. First, there is a block on your magic, which greatly reduces your power. Normally, Healers like me can bring them down, but this one is very tightly bound to your magic, and too complicated for a human Healer to break. However, I believe that the Goblins will be able to fix that, for a fee of course. I may not like the _youkai_ much, but their magic works differently than ours, so it should pose little trouble to them to treat it.

As for the second problem, my scans have picked up Dark Magic coming from your scar, as well as another magical signature. This means that another magic entity is tied to your scar, but it is unlike anything I have seen. I would suggest that you go to the Goblins for that. I believe it is more of the domain of a cursebreaker than of a Healer."

Harry was stunned, to say the least. Okay, there were two things the lady couldn't do to help him, but she believed that these Goblins would be able to treat him.

Seeing his shock, the woman spoke again, and a relieved yet shocked-looking Haruka traduced once again.

"Young one, do not bring your hopes up too much. I can only heal some of your scars, not all of them. Even if magic is a powerful tool for those who can use it properly, it still has its limitations. It can heal the scars you have to some degree, but not make them disappear, nor can it fix your mind. I cannot say how much damage was done to it, but I can tell that most people will probably never be able to understand some of your actions. It is nothing to be ashamed of, but be careful, for people often react badly to what they cannot understand."

Harry slowly nodded. He was not sure he had understood everything he had been told, but he got the gist of it. He would be healed, physically at least, save for some of his scars, but the old lady would not be able to do anything for his mind. Somehow, he preferred that. His mind was the only thing that he truly count on at the Dursleys, and the idea of someone tinkering inside it, even if it was to "heal" it, did not sit well with him.

Over the course of the next hour, he was forced to drink foul tasting potions to fix his body, and he grimaced when he learnt that he would have to take some other potions for a month, but considering it was to fix his health, he would gladly do so, even if those things tasted like Dudley's used underwear (or what he pictured what it tasted like). He was then told to close his eyes, as it would hurt him and hinder the process of healing his sight if his eyes were going to constantly focus and unfocus each time his eyesight was slightly corrected. It was not a process done all at once, but by small touches to ensure that the brain did not get confused in trying to suddenly force the eyes to focus less, as the eyesight was fixed.

Finally, he had to take off his shirt to get his scars treated, and he could see Haruka gnawing on her bottom lip so hard that a small trickle of blood had started flowing from a cut. Karasuba's reaction was far different, in fact, she looked pleased with what she saw, as if the scars made him interesting in her eyes. He wondered if it was really the scars, or the meaning of their presence on him. After all, scars, while some people might find them physically attractive, had usually their own story, their own reason to exist, be it an accident or a surgical operation. And Harry was quite sure that the grey-haired woman was interested by him _because_ of the _meaning_ of his scars, not by the scars themselves.

He laid on his stomach, while the Healer put some kind of cream on his back, numbing it. She then proceeded to chant once again, and he spent the next half-hour sporadically feeling liquid trickling on his back, but he never moved, not even once, as he had been told it would make the Healer's job more difficult. He had a few ideas as to what the liquid was, as more than once he heard Haruka stopping a gasp.

It was only after the Healer told him he could turn around that he moved, showing a torso that was far too skinny to be considered healthy, and while slightly less scarred than his back, well enough covered by scar tissue. On this side though, he had more burns than on his back, and those were apparently a little harder to treat, especially the older ones.

In the end, he still had a lot more scars than any boy his age had the right to have, but now they no longer hindered his movements, nor were they overly ugly, like they had been at first. Now they were smaller, but far more impressive.

"Now, young one, I was told you have some business to conduct in the roji, and seeing as the next phase of your treatment needs you to have the bones you want to heal vanished and re-grown during a night, I suggest you finish what you want to do and come back this evening. As for your body, you already know about the nutrient potions, so take them with healthy food, and in a month you'll be as good as you can hope to be. Now shoo! Old yûko is tired, and needs to rest."

With a nod, he got up, feeling strange now that most of the pain was gone. Seeing his grimace, Haruka frowned.

"Is something wrong?

-It just feels...weird. I mean, it doesn't hurt that much when I move. I guess I'm just not used to it."

He saw Haruka frown get replaced by a scowl, and Karasuba once again grinned. There was definitely something wrong with her, he mused. Each time he explained something that happened at his relatives, she was grinning. And strangely, he got the feeling it wasn't because she was mocking him. While he knew very little on her at the moment, he could tell that she was not one to take pleasure in hearing what he had gone through. It was more like she was interested in him, and that by hearing his life story, she heard things she liked, though he couldn't understand what she would like about it. Maybe someday he would be able to understand her, but that was not going to be anytime soon.

Karasuba was grinning again as they left the hospital. She was once again contemplating how lucky she was to have stumbled upon Harry Potter. While Yume and everyone else who knew her thought she was a psychotic murderer, that was only partly true. She did enjoy killing, but most of all, as all Sekirei, she wanted an Ashikabi to love her. She had briefly thought that Takehito Asama might have been the one for her, but she had never reacted to him, even if she had held some feelings for the man, which was the reason Miya and her hated each other. Unfortunately, she had never found an Ashikabi, as she was searching for someone who could understand her, someone who could stand by her while she was fighting.

Humans, for what she had seen, were far from able to stand against her, which in itself was not interesting, but they were also too weak to even begin to interest her. She had begun despairing that she would never find anyone, or that she would have to settle with an Ashikabi she held no interest for, chosen by Minaka. That had been when Harry Potter had entered her life.

He had been tortured all his life, had never been showed love, not even once, and as such held the world in much the same regard as her. Oh, he was polite, he cared for others, but most of all, she could _feel_ the resentment in him. There was no telling how she could exploit these buried feelings to turn him into a male version of herself.

He had been merely a fleeting interest at first, but that had changed when he had defended her against Yume when he thought she was threatening her, and the subsequent blasting of her rival in a wall with enough force to break some of her bones. The two of them had fought against armies together, and they had never even received a scratch. To see a _child _of all things being able to harm a Sekirei where entire armies were not even enough to scratch them, well, she had gotten interested. That was the moment she decided to try and mold Harry into her perfect Ashikabi.

The crux of her problem was simple: she was a Sekirei, and Sekirei, from what MBI had been able to find out about her species, were supposed to be entirely submissive to their Ashikabis. For someone like her, who prided herself on her strength, knowing that only Miya, the N.01, was stronger than her, the idea of being submissive towards someone whom she could kill easily was a blow to her pride. She would never allow herself to be with an Ashikabi that was not at least able to stand against her should he want to. She did not want a sniveling coward who would let her do whatever she wanted to do simply because he was scared of her. No, if she was going to be submissive to someone, it would be someone strong, and Harry had the potential to be that someone.

In the privacy of her room, she had told him that once he was better, meaning when his bones were set and his body healthy enough, she would begin training him, as a preliminary test, to check his resolve, as many humans were too lazy to even do things themselves. To her surprise, he had seemed eager to learn, and had even asked if he could learn some martial arts, explaining that he wanted to be prepared if he had to fight without a weapon. It had pleased her to no end, and she was inwardly rubbing her hands together at the prospect of having an Ashikabi strong enough to fight by her side, and more importantly, an Ashikabi that would understand her. The fact that he could use some so-called "magic" was a welcome bonus, as if he had been able to harm Yume at seven with no training, there was a good chance that he would get even more powerful with the proper education.

She watched as he walked with her behind Haruka towards the bank of wizards, his small frame shrinking on itself. She wondered if the Goblins would be a good challenge for her. After all, humans were no match for her, and relied far too much on their fancy weapons and armored vehicles. Perhaps another species would be more turned towards honing their own personal skills?

Harry couldn't help but shiver. There he was, with Haruka and Karasuba, in front of the building that held the bank of wizards in Japan. It was even bigger now that he looked at him from so close, and though the architecture was definitively Japanese, the doors were made of solid and well kept wood. While he was not sure how well that would hold against a serious assault, he figured that if he could use magic, then perhaps it was sturdier than he thought. There were inscriptions on the door, barely visibly on the wood if you were too far, but he didn't have a clue about what they said. Then again, considering the impressive statues standing in front of the bank, representing giant lions guarding it, and the four armed guards in front of the doors, he was willing to bet it was some kind of warning.

As he followed Haruka through the entrance, he was startled when an alarm went off, and when ten armed Goblins surrounded them. They were holding very sharp looking weapons, which he recognized as halberds, while they wore heavy plate armors.

Haruka screeched something, and one of the Goblins, who was wearing a set of armor slightly more decorated than the others answered her in the same language, and she turned to look at him strangely, before turning back and saying something else.

While they were negotiating, Karasuba had started grinning, again, and this time her grin was one of pure bloodlust. She was already reaching for her sword, when she found a blade under her neck, mere inches away from her skin. He saw her turn slowly to look at the Goblin who was holding the weapon, and said Goblin suddenly started grinning too. He was mildly sure that there was going to be a major fight going on soon, but then the Goblin talking to Haruka said something, and their weapons were drawn back, apparently much to Karasuba's regret, as she was fingering the sheath of her sword.

They were taken to a small adjacent room, with a few refreshments, and after taking a glass of water and downing it, Haruka turned to Harry.

"Harry, the alarm that went off is a Dark Magic's detector. It prevents wizards from hiding illegal artifacts in the bank and then claim that the Goblins are dabbling in forbidden arts. Apparently, it reacted to you. For some reason, the detector sensed Dark Magic coming from you, so you were going to be arrested and interrogated.

-But I don't know Dark Magic! I didn't even know of magic a week ago!

-I know, Harry, trust me, I know. So I arranged a check-up by the Goblins for what can have triggered the detector. If it isn't an object, it's likely that the Dark Magic is on you, and that can have some bad consequences it stays too long."

He gulped. He had no idea of what could cause that detector to go off, Hell, he didn't even know any magic yet! He just hoped he wasn't in trouble, but he somehow doubted that.

He was already hoping that things wouldn't go wrong when the doors opened, letting three Goblins enter. One was wearing an armor that looked quite effective and at the same time well-decorated, Harry supposed he was the one charged of the security of the bank, or at least someone high up in the ranks. The middle one was wearing a suit that had been tailored for his species, as it was well-adjusted, and since he had no helmet on, he could finally see what a Goblin looked like. He had grey skin, little black eyes that betrayed a keen intelligence, easily on par with a human's, and a wickedly long nose. He had some grey hair, tied in an elegant ponytail, and walked with the grace of someone who knew he had a lot of power. The final goblin was wearing clothes similar to the ones he had seen the Healers wear at the hospital they had been earlier, but he could also see some unpleasant looking metal tools hang from the belt of the uniform.

"Harry, allow to present, from left to right: Master Stonebreaker, chief of the security."

The armored Goblin hit the ground once with his weapon.

"Hello, sir." said Harry, by reflex.

It was only when he saw that everyone save Karasuba was looking at him strangely that he felt he did something wrong.

"Err...Did I say something wrong? If it's the case, I'm sorry!"

There was a silence, and then the three goblins burst out laughing, while Haruka was looking at them in shock.

Eventually, the one in the middle stopped laughing, and explained, in an oddly accentuated English:

"Harry Potter, usually, wizards rarely ever call us "sir", or apologize if they insult us. That is why we were surprised. Allow me to introduce myself: Master Ripbone, Vice-Director of this bank. And this is Master Bonebreaker, our chief Healer."

At that moment, another Goblin entered the room, this one wearing a worn brown attire, and looked far younger than both Ripbone and Bonebreaker. Ripbone simply nodded to the newcomer.

"Harry, allow me to introduce Cursebreaker Gashstone. He will be the one to check if you carry any Dark artifacts, then we will switch to Bonebreaker in case the Dark Magic is tied to you."

Said Goblin had already begun waving his hands towards Harry, and he had no doubt he was already getting some results if the way his eyes were bulging out were any indication.

Less than a minute after having he started waving his hands, Gashstone stopped, and then said something in a language that made Harry grit his teeth together by the sheer impossibility of the sounds he was making. Apparently what he said had to be pretty interesting, if he could judge by how heated the conversation had gotten between the four Goblins.

Finally, Bonebreaker walked towards him, and started waving his hands, but quickly stopped when Harry saw something black move before his eyes. It looked like a black tendril, and he could tell just by looking at it that it was not something he ever wanted to get close to. Haruka was looking at him in worry, and he was wondering if she knew something he didn't, because she was quite pale now.

"Harry."

He turned to look at Ripbone, who was looking quite grave.

"Harry, you received this scar after the Killing Curse rebounded on you, am I right?

-Uh, yeah, well that's what I was told.

-Well, from what Gashstone and Bonebreaker have found, it seems that it is something that we only have a theorical knowledge of. You see, it seems that your scar contains the soul, or at least a part of the soul of another wizard, and we are almost sure, considering the circumstances surrounding how you got it, that it is a piece of the soul of Lord Voldemort.

-A have a piece of the soul of somebody else in my scar?" he whispered. For six years he had had somebody else in his head? The idea made him sick.

"Indeed. It is rare, but not unheard of, that some Dark Wizards tried to stay alive in case they were defeated by creating object that anchored their souls to this world, preventing them from moving on to the afterlife. Now, your case is a rarity, as putting a piece of your soul in a living being, someone who can think and act independently, is a huge risk, and is usually done with objects. This is why we can't remove it just yet, as we need to look into our archives for a way to remove it safely. Luckily for you, Bonebreaker has apparently an interest in the process, and had searched it in his youth, so it shouldn't take more than a day or two.

Now, what else can Gringotts do for you today?"

As a shaken Haruka explained their reasons to be there, he was already musing on what he had just learnt. The prospect of having the soul, or even a part of the soul, of a raving madman as Haruka had described him, inside his head, made him sick, and he really wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. He had no idea about how it had happened, but he didn't really care about the how, more about the when. Perhaps it was a secondary effect of surviving the Killing Curse? Considering he was the first to have survived it, it wouldn't be so unbelievable.

"-kun! Harry-kun!

-Uh? Oh, yeah! Sorry about that."

Haruka smiled.

"Don't worry, I can understand. Learning that you have a piece of the soul of the man who tried to kill you in your head is not exactly an easy pill to swallow, and I don't think I'd deal with it even half as well as you do. Now, I talked to Breakbone about the block, and he can remove it, but we'll need to go to a special room for that."

So there he was, strapped to a block of stone, leather straps holding him down. Apparently the straps were to prevent him from hurting himself, as removing the block would be quite painful, since it was not only overly complicated, but was also six years old, and only got stronger with time. From what he had been told, the fact that he had been able to access any magic at all was an achievement, as most wizards would not have been able to even levitate a feather, less even blast someone into a wall.

"**Right, we're going to start. Harry, everything fine?**"

He simply nodded, as he had a piece of leather in his mouth to stop him from cutting his tongue off with his teeth by accident. He was still clothed, as the ritual didn't need anything been drawn on him or direct contact with his skin.

"**Begin!"**

At once, several stones positioned at regular intervals around the block of stone started shining a deep blue. The principle was simple: the only way to undo the block was to do in two times: first, there was a need to supercharge it, stretching it to its limits and weakening the link it had to Harry's magic, and then a team of Goblins would start the incantations to break it. The first part was the most difficult, as from what he had been told it was going to be painful, as the block was like a living being feeding off his magic to maintain its existence, and so was not going to disappear easily.

At first, he felt nothing but a tickling sensation, as if the atmosphere had been full of static energy, and then, suddenly, his body arched, his mouth open in a scream of pain so loud it could be heard on the other side of the wall separating him from Haruka and Karasuba. It felt as if he had been plunged into liquid magma, his veins were on fire, and his head felt as if someone had stuck a fire poker inside his brain.

He didn't know how long he spent screaming, how long his body jerked and had spasms under the strain of the magic forced into the block, but he was willing to bet it had been several hours. It was strange to feel so much pain after his body had been healed, well, mostly healed. Physical pain, he was used to it, after six years, but this pain he was experiencing was different. It was deeper, and uniform. Physical pain was never uniform, there was always somewhere that hurt more, but this pain was the same everywhere in his body.

Finally, after what felt like hours, he heard a chant start. He couldn't possibly decipher the words, and at this point, he had given up trying to think about pretty much everything, as it only make his head ache. He could say one thing, though, and that was that whatever language was used, it wasn't human. Not that he minded, though, as long as it worked and that it ended soon.

After the chant reached its peak, or what he assumed was the peak considered how loud it had gotten, he felt _something_, he had no idea how to describe it, _something_ that detached itself from him, and he heard a sound similar to glass breaking, before he finally lost consciousness.

Karasuba was once again examining her nodachi, bored out of her mind. She had wanted to see what happened to Harry, she was curious, but the Goblins had been adamant that no one save Harry could be in the room for the ritual. She had relented when they had told her that there would be nothing interesting to watch anyway, and she had opted to sit in the room next to the one Harry was in, and take care of her blade. The interesting thing had been to see the Goblins discreetly examine her blade when they thought she wasn't looking. Apparently the little buggers were quite interested in blade-wielding humans, and from the tone of the Goblin who had told her that, there was little doubt that they had guessed she was anything _but_ human.

She had been there for nearly two hours, when she suddenly sat straight up.

_What the HELL was THAT?_

That had been unlike anything she had felt in her life. She wasn't the only one to have felt it, as it seemed that Haruka was going to faint from shock, and the two Goblins guarding the door had straightened taken a quick glance towards the ritual room.

"_Okay, what the Hell was that?"_ she asked, turning towards Haruka.

By now, the woman was nearly hyperventilating, and she was seriously considering using her sheath to knock her out. Normally, she would simply have killed her, but she figured that killing someone from a Ministry of Magic in a bank run by Goblins would be counterproductive. Better have the officials on her side if she wanted to convince them to train Harry in magic.

"_That...That was a wave of raw magic, and I think it came from Harry-kun. And it was far too powerful to belong to a child so young."_

She couldn't help but grin widely at the news. Turns out that little Harry was getting more interesting by the minute.

"_Oh? What do you mean?_

_-That...The quantity of magic he gave off in that wave, it would be more realistic if it belonged to a powerful sixth year, a wizard or witch around sixteen, if you prefer. It was already more powerful than some of the wizards and witches I know!"_

As Haruka glanced towards the ritual room, Karasuba was inwardly cackling. If Harry was powerful enough to surprise an official, he was going to be even more interesting when he got older. Of course, she would need to make sure he was properly trained in magic, after all what good was a huge potential if you couldn't use it?

It had taken him an hour to emerge from the coma induced by the sudden release of his magical power, and he was still quite sore from the experience. Not only that, but he was feeling strange, as if he was now reunited with a part of him he hadn't known he was missing, as if he suddenly discovered himself a third arm that had been there since birth but had never been used.

When he told Haruka, she gave him a smile.

"Of course it feels like that. Harry-kun, your magic is a part of you, as much as any internal organ or limb. The fact that the block on you left you with only around twenty percent of your power means that you are going to be feeling strange for a little while, as your body will need to adjust to your new level of power. You are lucky that there were no crippling aftereffects, the block on you was tied quite strongly to your magic."

He simply nodded. It wasn't as if it would have changed much for him to lose his magic, he hadn't even known he could use magic a week earlier. There was something he was curious about, though.

"Do you know who put the block on me?"

At that, Haruka grimaced, as if she had just swallowed a lemon.

"We don't know for sure, but the Goblins said that whoever it was, was very powerful, and very knowledgeable in magic. That, and the fact that it has been there for around six years leave only two possibilities. The first one is Voldemort, but there was no reason for him to place a block on your magic before he tried to kill you, and even if he survived the night you survived the Killing Curse, the Goblins have assured me that he would not be able to do so. The other option is Dumbledore-san, but that makes no sense. He is the Leader of the Light and a respected wizard.

-A respected wizard who sent me to non-magical relatives who hated anything magic related, did not check once on me, and said it was for my safety. I don't really like him, so why wouldn't it be him?"

Haruka sighed.

"If you put it like that, it almost seems believable. It is hard to believe he wouldn't want to know how you are doing, as many people think of you as his successor.

-Does it really matter?" said a voice, and Harry felt something soft press against his head.

Karasuba had apparently heard their conversation and had approached him from behind, before embracing him. Harry could easily tell is wasn't an affectionate hug, even if he had never had one before. The way she was holding him, her grip on his body, all of it made it clear that she was holding him in the way she would hold a treasured possession.

"Of course it matters! That kind of block is dangerous, if it hadn't been removed, Harry would never have been able to access his magic!" snapped an apparently flustered Haruka.

Karasuba just cackled before explaining:

"It's not what I'm saying, Haru-_chan_. In the end, the block is removed, and Harry will get his revenge, right? That Volde-something, if he's still alive, will probably try to kill him again, so Harry will just have to deal with him. That, and Dumbledore-kun is still alive and kicking, so we can still pay him a _friendly_ visit later."

Harry gulped. His instincts, acquired after countless beatings, insults and unpleasant experiences, were in high alert. The way Karasuba had said a _friendly_ visit was quite the opposite of what she had meant, making it clear that such a visit would finish badly for the old man. And somewhere, deep inside him, a part of him hoped it would end badly for Dumbledore. After all, he had been the one responsible for the Hell his life had been so far, it was only justice that he got punished. After all, when _he_ did something that the Dursleys considered bad, _he _was punished. So why would Dumbledore be any different? Only this time, _he_ was going to be the one doing the punishment.

The ensuing silence was broken by a cough. The two women and Harry turned to look at an armed Goblin that was standing at attention next to them. Said Goblin said something that Harry didn't understand, as for what he could pick up it was Japanese, and while he could understand simple sentences after a week of being around people who routinely spoke it, he was nowhere near fluent in the language.

Haruka answered in kind, and then the Goblin strode off.

"Harry-kun, now that you are awake, Ripbone will receive you. We are going to go over what you possess, what vaults you are entitled to.

-Possess? Vaults? I'm sorry, I don't understand."

And he really didn't. While he was more or less aware of how the banks worked, the very _idea_ of him possessing anything, or being entitled to possess anything was ludicrous. He had never been _allowed_ to possess anything, the Dursleys had made sure of that. Even his clothes were not his own, but some of Dudley's cast offs.

Haruka sighed, probably not understanding why he couldn't comprehend what he had just said, or misunderstanding it completely.

"Harry-kun, all magical families have vaults, and to explain it in simple words: there are tests that allow the Goblins to know what vaults a person can claim. Simply put, by using these tests, we can see if you inherited money, so that you can use it for your shopping.

-B-but I don't have money!

-Harry-kun, there are at lot of things you don't know about our world, and it _will_ take time for you to learn, but know that you come from an old family, with a lot of money.

-But they didn't want me...Left me with the Dursleys..." he mumbled.

"Indeed they did, but that doesn't mean they didn't have a good reason to do so."

It was at that moment that Karasuba interrupted the both of them.

"Harry-chan, if you have money, take it. Why do you care? If it's yours, take it, simple as that. And while I doubt they have a valid reason to let an old man ship you to people who didn't like you, for now it doesn't matter, right? You're going to learn magic and show them what they lost when they let Dumbledore-kun take you from them. You're going to become someone great, because you can, Harry-kun, and then you'll make them regret ditching you."

It made sense, he mused. If it belonged to him, even if it came from his parents-the ones who had abandoned him-, it was still his. He would use it, and make sure that he became powerful enough that the family which had abandoned him would beg for forgiveness, forgiveness he would never give. He had come to terms with the idea of his parents following Dumbledore, after all he could understand that in some situations people needed an authority figure to guide them, but what irked was that in six years they had never come to check on him. _That_ was unforgivable.

Looking up to Haruka, he asked:

"So, where do we do these tests?"

Haruka was starting to get a little concerned about Harry Potter. The words of the old Healer were worrying, as she had said she couldn't heal his mind, and she had no doubt that the boy's was quite different from most children his age. He was already acting very mature for his age, and while from time to time he seemed to shrink on himself by reflex, he was apparently trying to get out of it. What was more worrying, though, was the influence this Karasuba had on him. She had seen the grey-haired woman eyeing the Boy-Who-Lived, and it had made her shiver. The sheer intensity of her gaze in itself was terrifying, but it was the feelings she could see behind her eyes that scared her. This woman, while not magical, already considered Harry as her property, and she had no doubt that she would protect what she considered as hers.

There was also the fact that the grey-haired woman was constantly carrying a sword with her, a nodachi of all things! And seeing how she treated it, she had no doubt that she could use it very efficiently. While Harry had undergone the ritual to remove his block, she had seen Karasuba examine her sword, tracking any imperfections that would need reparation, lest the blade become too fragile to be used. And she had not missed the nervous glances the Goblins had sent her way. And that in particular was worrying. Goblins had had several wars with wizards, luckily not in the far East, but if there was one thing that wizards had learnt the hard way, it was that an armed Goblin was extremely dangerous, and never backed off, even faced with impossible odds. To see Goblin guards, who had been trained their whole life to be ruthless killers if need be, being afraid of _one_ woman, in their own bank, spoke volume of just how dangerous she was.

And now she was faced with a dilemma: Harry could obviously not return with his parents or even in England, as it was clear that neither them or Dumbledore were suited as guardians, seeing how mistreated he had been at the Dursleys. That would be tricky to resolve, but with some time and the right connections, she was quite confident that the Japanese Ministry of Magic would be able to burn off any leads to Harry. It was purely a political move, of course, having the Boy-Who-Lived educated in Japan, when England and Dumbledore would still be looking for their poster boy, would destroy their credibility on the International scene. That would also allow them to have the Heir of a powerful old family firmly on Japan's side if they ever needed a favor. The tricky part would be to find him a new family, but considering how close he seemed to be to Karasuba, and the apparent possessiveness of the woman, she highly doubted that Harry would agree to ever be separated from her. That would be dangerous, the woman would have a lot of influence on him, and if the Boy-Who-Lived became someone like her, then Japan might suffer the blow instead of England, as it would be their fault that the poster boy turned out as he did.

For now, though, the best course of action would be to let him with Karasuba and hope for the best.

"So all I have to do is cut my finger and put some blood on this sheet?

-Indeed, Harry."

He was sitting in a very well-decorated room, with weapons, tapestries and portraits hung on the walls. In the back of the room was a massive wooden desk, exquisitely carved, and behind said desk, Ripbone was sitting in a comfortable leather seat. In front of the desk, there was Harry, sitting in a seat a little less impressive than the one the Goblin was in, Karasuba, who also had a leather seat, and Haruka, who was sitting on a comfy chair.

Taking an ornate dagger that Ripbone was holding out, he cut open his palm and let the blood fall on the parchment he had been given. He then presented it to the Vice-Director, who took it, but not before glancing at him strangely. Apparently, the dagger had been magical, as the cut on his palm had already healed.

They watched as Ripbone looked over the parchment, and his eyes widened the further he went. At the end of the parchment, he seemed to have taken a blow to the head, as he stayed in his seat, unmoving. It took a few minutes, but when he came to himself, he took a bottle than had been on his desk and took a long gulp of whatever liquid was inside.

"Is something wrong?" asked Haruka, who had probably understood that nothing normal ever happened when it came to Harry Potter.

"No, there is nothing "wrong", however the results returned are quite...surprising to say the least. See for yourself."

The Ministry employee took the parchment, and as she read, Harry noticed that she frowned, before giving the sheet back to the Goblin.

"Excuse-me, but what is wrong with this? I can see that he is the Heir of the House Potter, but I do not recognize the other names. Are they really so special?

-Of course you wouldn't. These names have not been seen for centuries.

-Excuse-me, sir, but can you tell me what is wrong?" he asked, getting slightly fed up that they were talking about him as if he wasn't there.

Ripbone blinked, and then looked at him as if he had forgotten that he was even there. Considering what had been going on, Harry was willing to bet it was exactly what happened.

"Yes, excuse me, Harry. The results are just a little, well odd. See for yourself."

He took the parchment and read it over.

_Harry James Potter_

_Age:7_

_Father: James Charlus Potter_

_Mother: Lily Marie Potter nee Evans_

_Harry James Potter is Heir to:_

_-House of Potter (by Blood)_

_-House of Peverell (by Blood)_

_-House of Slytherin (by Right of Conquest)_

_-House of Ravenclaw (Right of Conquest-Tied to Heir of Slytherin)_

He looked up at Ripbone and Haruka, who were looking at him intensely.

"Can someone explain this to me? I don't understand.

-Of course, Harry." Ripbone said, as he leaned further towards him." You see, in the Magical World, many families take pride in their ancestry, and usually the older your family is, the more it has influence. Of course, in most countries, the influence of the old families is balanced by the law, but in England, the old families have more or less complete control over the political life. To be brief, the old families control more or less everything.

-Oh, okay. Like the nobles in the Middle Age, right? But what does it have to do with me?

-Harry, the Potters are one of the oldest families in Britain, and that alone gives you a lot of political influence, but the three other houses you are Heir to are even older. In fact, the Peverell House was supposed to have died out around 900 A.C, and the Slytherin and Ravenclaw Houses disappeared after the construction of Hogwarts, the English Wizardry school. Each of these three Houses give you more power than any other family, and the three together means that you basically control around half of the British Magical government, the Wizenmagot."

Harry sat there in silence. It was starting to get a little much for him, he mused. Not only had he discovered that he was some kind of celebrity for stopping a supposedly unstoppable Dark Wizard, but he now discovered that he had a piece of the soul of said wizard in his head, which proved that said Dark Wizard was still alive, and now he discovered that he basically controlled the British Magical Government.

Finally, after a few minutes of silence in which he tried to weigh his options, he decided on a course of action.

"Is there a way for me to take only some of these names? I mean, can I chose not to become the Heir to House Potter, but be the Heir of the other three?"

Ripbone looked pensive for a moment, but a surprised Haruka was the one to speak first.

"Harry-kun, you want to abandon your old family name?

-Simple question: what did my family do for me, save for abandoning me on the word of an old man? "

His question was met with a chuckle from Karasuba, and silence from Haruka.

"So why would I want to still keep the name Potter? If these three families are so old, they must have more than enough money together for me to live off it until I get a job, and abandoning the name Potter will let me avoid unnecessary attention, so long as I hide my scar, since it is apparently the only other thing people know about me. I don't want attention, I want to have a normal life, or as close to normal I can get. So if it means I have to abandon my old name, I'll gladly do it.

-A very mature decision, Harry. And as to answer your question: yes, you can chose to not claim the Potter inheritance. It will however need to be recorded at Gringotts' English branch, in Diagon Alley. And do not worry about it becoming public knowledge soon, typically Gringotts' procedure in these cases is to send an owl to the concerned party, in this case your family, at your eleventh birthday. There will be no information regarding where you live, and if the Ministry passes a law to force Gringotts to tell them where you recorded your decision and when, they will be notified it was at Gringotts' English branch and the date of your decision, nothing more.

-Which means I will not need to worry about someone tracking me down.

-Indeed. And as for having enough money to live by yourself until you get a job, do not worry about that. I do not remember exactly how much these three vaults are worth, but I can tell you that you are rich enough to buy an entire country for yourself with the three of them.

-What?!" he shouted.

The very notion of having money of his own was already quite difficult to swallow, but now he discovered he was famous, politically powerful _and_ rich? His thoughts came to a screeching halt as his brain shut down, unable to process all the life-changing news he had learnt since that morning.

As she caught Harry's fainting form, Karasuba was grinning so wide it was threatening to split her face in two. She was already using all her willpower to fight back the pull she was feeling for the young boy in front of her, and the fight was incredibly difficult. She did not want to wing herself on him while he was still the pathetic weakling he still was, she wanted to wait at least until he was strong enough to be able to defend himself against other humans. But she really had hit the jackpot when she had reacted to Harry. He could understand her suffering, he was a very powerful wizard, he had a lot of political influence, AND he was rich. While the idea of her future Ashikabi being rich wasn't that important to her, she had to admit that it was a good point for him. She had no love for the material world, but it was still nice to be able to enjoy the best the world had to offer, she had gotten used to it after living at MBI tower. And the idea of her Ashikabi being able to control the political life of an entire nation was more than appealing in her eyes. True, it was not pure power, but it was power nonetheless. Oh, her life was going to be so fun in a few years of time!

Pushing her future Ashikabi back into his chair and making sure he was comfortable, she turned towards the Goblin, who had been eyeing her actions with curiosity.

"Well, while Harry is out cold, I'd like to open a vault in your bank. I trust it is possible?

-Indeed, though you will need to convert some yens to our currency if you desire to do so."

She grinned, and reached into one of her pockets, taking out the little package Minaka had given her before they departed from MBI Tower. As it turned out, she wasn't the only one interested in Harry, the lunatic director of MBI had apparently taken a shine to her little pupil-to-be, and had the firm's whole legal team on the matter of adopting Harry, a task that had been quite easy, as he didn't even have a birth certificate.

The papers for his adoption were already drawn, and all that they needed to be perfectly legal was Minaka's signature. Why he hadn't signed them yet, she didn't know, as she knew him well enough to understand that he wouldn't care about Harry's opinion on the matter. If she had to guess, she would say it had something to do with the fact that he could use magic and that Minaka was waiting for his confirmation because he saw his possible involvement with the Plan as a "gift of the Gods", or some crap of the same order. Well, it was her he had asked to tell Harry about it, as they were for a lack of a better term, quite close, something that still baffled Yume and Takami whenever they saw the pair.

Putting the bars of gold on the table, she leaned back on her seat, happy to see that she had the full attention of her interlocutor. Good thing that Minaka had asked about the wizards' currency.

"I'd like to open a vault under the name Minaka, using this gold as a start. The only one I want to be able to access the vault will be Harry.

-Understood. As for the security, do you desire a low-security, or a high-security vault?

-What are the security measures for a high-security vault?

-High-security vaults are keyed the users' blood, and enchanted by our best cursebreakers to be impervious to any form of magic and magical travel. We have patrols in the area twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. And every three vaults, there is a Nue standing guard.

-Then a high security vault. Wouldn't want Harry to get robbed, now, would we?"

She saw Haruka stiffen and Ripbone look offended for a second, but with a grin she let her hand rest on the sheath of her nodachi, and she had the pleasure to see the Goblin pale slightly. Good. Magical people or not, she wasn't going to let _anyone_ control or intimidate her.

"Good. Now that we have an agreement, as soon as Harry wakes up, we'll be going shopping. I trust that when that happens you'll already have converted this gold into your currency?"

It was a bemused Harry Potter who walked out of Gringotts' Japanese branch an hour later. In his hands was a pouch linked to a vault Karasuba had created on Minaka' orders, as the man apparently wanted to adopt him. He was not stupid, he knew that MBI's crazy CEO had very little interest in him as a person, but probably wanted to keep an eye on him an see for himself what wizards could do. But the idea of having a place to stay and call home, even if it did not hold the warmth of a loving family, really interested him. That, and between the option of being adopted by a magical family in the off case he refused and being adopted by Minaka, he would pick the second any time. At least there people would see him as Harry, not as the Boy-Who-Lived. He didn't even want to think about the sheer stupidity the magical community must exhibit at large if they gave him that silly nickname, as well as calling Voldemort You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Shaking his head, he decided to focus on something else. He was going shopping, and Karasuba had _heavily_ insisted that the next day they went to shop for muggle clothes. Which meant she actually simply stated that it was what they would do, and nobody said anything. After all, he didn't have anything against it, rather he was rather enthusiastic at the idea of being able to have clothes that actually fitted him instead of wearing Dudley's cast offs, and Haruka was more or less going along with what he wanted. That and she seemed to be terrified of Karasuba.

The first store they went was the trunk store, and Harry immediately bought the largest trunk available to him, a seven-room one. When Karasuba asked why he wanted a trunk so big, he shrugged and said that since he could afford it, he was going to buy it, as he wanted to buy a lot of books, that and he wanted to separate the books about the magical world from the ones he intended to buy on muggle science and technology. Haruka was apparently pleased with his answer, and told him that English wizards tended to look down on the muggles, believing them to be beneath their notice. The Japanese world was far different, however. They were indeed quite conservative, but they certainly were not suffering from the Head in the Sand syndrome the British suffered from, as having two cities wiped out by nukes in the late hours of the World War 2 made it quite hard for them to ignore the growing threat that technology posed to the Wizardry World. That meant that even children from old families knew about the basic muggle technology.

They disregarded the bookstore, as Ripbone had told them that he had reasons to believe it would be better for them to wait until the piece of soul in Harry's head was extracted, even if he didn't really state these reasons. So instead they went directly to get Harry's wand. Haruka had explained that it was irregular, as magical children usually got their wands when they were eleven, as they entered Japan's magical school, Mahoutokoro, but considering his status and his life so far, she didn't see any reasons for him to wait until then. After all, he was probably far more mature than most eleven years old, and the only reason people waited until then to get their children wands was for fear of them accidently hurting themselves while using it, or exposing the magical world. Considering that Harry, with a block limiting most of his power, was still able to send someone in a wall with enough force to break some bones meant that it would be far better for him to start training in magic early, as accidental magic now would be dangerous for him and his entourage.

The shop looked positively ancient, unlike the other buildings, which, while adopting the old Japanese architecture, were more recent. The wand shop, however, looked like it had been there for more than a few hundred years. The paint, while still holding, had still seen better days, and while overall the state of the shop was correct, there were more than a few blemishes on the wood it was made of. There were a few wands displayed in the shop's window, but otherwise, without the blemishes on the structure, the shop would have been totally unremarkable.

As they entered it, he felt his hair stand up from the ambient magic. True, he did not know about magic much, but even he could tell that the air was filled with mystical power. He was about to call for someone, when he felt the rush of something moving at a high speed, and he turned to see Karasuba with the blade of her nodachi on the throat of an elderly man, who for some reason didn't seem fazed at all, and merely curious.

"And who might you be?" asked the grey-haired woman, her tone jovial, though Harry could tell that she could very well kill the man if she wanted to.

"I am merely an humble wand crafter. And may I know your name, as well as the one of the child with you?"

The blade taped the man on his cheek. Haruka was looking alternatively between Karasuba and the old man, while Harry was simply watching the scene. He could tell that his bodyguard or whatever she wanted to be called was in a good mood, so the old man would probably live, so long as he didn't deliberately try to anger her.

"I'm Karasuba. The _child_" and she pronounced _child _as if she found hard to believe he was one, " is Harry Potter, and you're going to find him a wand." she said, as he withdrew her blade from the man's neck, and made a gesture towards Harry.

The man simply glanced at her curiously, before he turned towards him.

"Aah, Harry Potter-san. I am honored to receive someone so famous in my humble shop. Though if I may, I had expected you to get your wand at Ollivanders, in Britain? After all, you are British.

-It's...complicated. But I'm sure your wands are as good as the British ones?"

The old man nodded with a neutral expression, but Harry could tell that behind the stone façade, he was quite pleased with his answer.

"Indeed, indeed. Now, Potter-san, would you mind coming with me? Your friend can come too, as well as Miss Hasegawa. I trust your wand still works properly? Thirty three centimeters (**i.e:13 inches**), cherry wood, and a Yatagarasu's feather it was. A wand with a vast potential, though slightly more focused on Healing magic.

-Yes. It still works wonderfully, thank you."

As the old man was leading them towards the back of his shop, Harry couldn't help but feel curious.

"Excuse-me, sir, but how did you know English?

-In my profession, Potter-san, there is always some interest in travelling, though I heard that most European wand makers do not wander out of Europe, or, for the most adventurous, Africa. I spent a few years in America after the end of World War II, I wanted to see how different their magical world evolved when working in concert with the Muggle government. That is where I learned English.

-Ah, I see."

They had arrived in a room filled with shelves, which were separated into three separate groups. The one closest to the left wall was covered with wood blocks, the one in the center was covered with countless jars, and in right corner of the room was another group of shelves, far smaller than the previous two, with around twenty boxes lined on it.

Gesturing for Karasuba and Haruka to stay where they were, the old man led Harry towards the shelves holding the wood blocks.

"Now, Potter-san, I want you to close your eyes, and feel the different wood blocks on this shelf. If one or more of them feel right to you, please give them to me."

Doing as he was told, he touched the different items, and when he finished, he had given two blocks to the old man.

"Tell me, Potter-san, what you felt when you touched them?

-I'm...not sure. The first one, well it felt warm, I don't know how to describe it better than that. And the second, it felt as if I was getting back something I missed. It's weird, I know, but...

-Now, now, Potter-san. We are looking for the wood that will make your wand, of course it may feel strange. It is unfortunate, but few people can understand that the wizard doesn't choose the wand, it's the wand that chooses the wizard. Magic made you attuned with these particular woods, and there must be a reason for this.

As for the wood we are going to use, am I right when I say that your reaction to the second block was stronger than for the first one?

-Yeah, you're right.

-Good. This is the wood of a Japanese Cedar. They are often used as sacred trees in Shinto shrines. Now that we have picked up the wood, may you tell me if any of these jars call to you? Remember, close your eyes, it will be easier."

For a long time, he kept his eyes closed, but after a few minutes, he opened them again, disappointed.

"Sorry, I don't feel anything important. There are a few that feel slightly better than the others, but that's about all."

Far from looking disappointed, the old man frowned, before taking Harry to the last shelf. He pointed the boxes to him, before explaining.

"Potter-san, please try again. Usually I do not ask my clients to try with these, as they are rather unique, and most find their core with the ones on the shelf we saw earlier. However it seems that your magic did not call to them, so we can try."

Frowning, he closed his eyes again, and he almost immediately felt _something_, probably magic, pull him to two of the boxes. One was made of wood and looked quite worn, though well-cared for, while the other was made of what looked like some opaque glass.

Pointing them to the old man, he explained:

"These. This one feels like it's calling for me, and this one wants to be a part of me.

-Interesting...Indeed, very interesting. Would you like to see the contents of these boxes?"

As he nodded eagerly, the old man chuckled, and opened the wooden box. Inside was what looked like a strand of golden-white hair.

"This, is something one of my ancestors managed to coax out of a _kyûbi-no-kitsune_, a very powerful fox youkai. It is some fur coming from its nine tails."

Carefully closing the box, he then picked up the one that looked like opaque glass, and opened it. Inside was a small bottle made of glasses, or at least what he assumed was glass. Inside was a crimson liquid, and he was willing to bet it was blood.

"This, while not as rare as the fur of a _kyûbi_, was extremely hard to obtain. This is some blood from a _Yuki-onna_, a Snow Woman. It was given willingly to a traveler that had spent the night with her as a token of appreciation for his kindness. It eventually came into my hands when the family it had been given to gave birth to a magical child as payment for the best wand I could make for said child.

What is most interesting, however, is that _kyûbi _ are fire-related beings, while _yuki-onnas_ are beings of ice. For two cores so opposite to be willing to bond with you, Potter-san, is very telling. The wand I will make with these cores will be as suited in the arts of destruction as it will be in the arts of protection and Healing. It will be very powerful, as long as you can balance its dual nature. Come back tomorrow, I will have your wand ready."

With that said, the old man ushered the three of them out of his shop, leaving them in the alley, puzzled about the experience.

Finally, Karasuba asked, looking torn between respecting the man for manhandling her and the need to chop him to pieces:

"Are all wand makers this bad?

-I'm not sure, from I've heard, yes, they are. I think it comes with their branch of work. I heard someone say once that the stranger the wand maker, the better the wands made."

Harry saw the grey-haired woman eye the shop longingly, her hand twitching over the hilt of her sword. Finally, she calmed down, and let her hand fall to her side, before turning to look at Haruka.

"So, where do we go now?"

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**So, please review and tell me what you think.  
**

**Before closing:**

**-the materials from Harry's wand ARE rare, but not nearly unique (I can already see those screaming that Harry is getting preferential treatment or that I am making him cheated), as the wandmaker can use each several more times, but people they react to are rare. His wand will be more powerful than most, but only because he himself is stronger than most wizards, and that he is more "in tune" with it.**

**-the block: obviously, Dumbledore strikes reason why he did so is twofold: knowing that the Dursleys hated magic, he did it to prevent Harry from using too much magic, so as to not make them dislike him too much, but also because Harry was already very powerful as a child, and he feared that his accidental magic would draw too much unwanted attention, or that it would harm either Harry or the Dursleys. Another one of his mistakes, though this one had less consequences that the Blood Wards. Had it worked as he had intended it to, he would have destroyed it himself at Harry's eleventh birthday. It would have been dangerous when he reached his majority if it hadn't been destroyed, but seeing how well Harry was supposed to be hidden, he hadn't expected anything to go wrong.  
**

**-the family he is Heir to: Potters (obviously), Slytherin (by defeating Lord Voldemort), Ravenclaw (as I said, tied to the title of Lord Slytherin, though Rowena made sure that those that wanted to use the title were worthy of it and not dumb morons), and Peverell, because they married the Potters long ago, and as they were a pureblood family (mostly) until James married Lily, they never needed to take inheritance tests.**

**-adoption by Minaka: again, nothing really surprising, Minaka simply wants to keep an eye on Harry and learn more about magic, since he is really obsessed with anything not "human" (Sekirei, and magic for example) and thinks them as something like a gift from the Gods. Harry knows Minaka will probably not care much for him as a person, but he doesn't really care, since MBI was the first time he remembers people taking care of him.**

**-the fact that nobody had tried to help Harry before: that is wrong, but Harry sees it like this, since all the friends he made turned their back on him after Dudley threatened them. The adults did notice some of the bruises, but thought they were from fights, since the Dursleys had alredy spread rumors about him being a troublemaker. The few times Harry actually snapped and got into fights on his own just cemented their belief.**

**Hope this was good enough for you all, see you for the next chapter (not before another two weeks, _at least_).**

**Arawn D. Draven, out.**


	3. Chapter 3-Horcruxes and memories

**Hello, I'm back! Sorry for the long, delay, but I've been busy lately, lots of projects going on for Uni...Anyway, I would like to thank the people who took the time to review and criticize my work. Even if I don't write something you write, you still took the time to give your opinion, so thanks!**

**This chapter is the last one where Harry is seven, the next one will be when he is ten (timeskip). Some may comment about how a certain character that will not be named acts a bit Out Of Character, though I hope I managed to make his reasons for acting this way valid.**

**Anyway, onto the chapter!**

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**I don't own Harry Potter or Sekirei**

* * *

03

**Horcruxes, memories, and shopping**

Harry groaned. He had just spent the night having his bones re-grown, and he hoped he didn't have to repeat the experience anytime soon. First of all, this "Skele-gro" potion tasted absolutely terrible, and feeling his bones re-grow was not, by any stretch of imagination, a pleasant experience. He had spent the _entire_ night turning and trying to lessen the ache of the magic taking place inside him, but had not succeeded at all. It was only after the magic died down that he had been able to slip into blissful sleep, if only for a few hours.

As he looked around, he spotted Karasuba sitting on a chair, in the same position she had been each time he had turned to look at her. For some reason beyond his comprehension, she had flat out refused to go back to MBI Tower without him, and had even threatened the staff when they had told her they would force her out if need be. Needless to say, they had relented when they had been faced with a nodachi wielded by a woman sporting a bloodthirsty grin that sent shivers down their spines.

As he tried to get out of bed without making too much noise, as he didn't want to wake Karasuba up, he found himself pinned to the bed by said woman, who was apparently very much awake.

"Going somewhere, Harry-chan?" she asked, her voice teasing, though her eyes were not so playful.

"Ah! Uhh...I didn't want to wake you up, I just wanted to get a drink." he explained, a little fearfully. Even if he didn't think she would hurt him as badly as the Dursleys, he still wasn't sure that she wouldn't hurt him at all.

With a grin, she got up and stretched, making her look like some kind of giant cat. Once again, he noticed how beautiful she was, though he frowned when he saw the dark circles under her eyes. He was fairly sure they had been there before, but he had paid them no mind. Now, though, he couldn't help but notice them.

"Karasuba... Do you sleep well?" he tentatively asked. He only hoped that he wouldn't make her mad when he asked.

He was rewarded with an arched eyebrow, and a slight tensing of her body. Normal people would have missed it, but after being beaten black and blue by the Dursleys, he had learned to be observant of people's body language.

"And why do you ask, Harry-chan?

-Because...I care about you?" he mumbled. He was not very good at expressing his emotions, a side effect of his upbringing, and while he cared about Karasuba, as she was the first person to spend so much time with him and treat him like a human being, he was still rightfully afraid of her.

He did not expect the woman to blush bright red for a second, before looking at him with her eyes narrowed. The next second, he was lifted by the collar of his clothes and thrown back into his bed.

"Stay here, I'll get you a drink." she said in an icy voice, before turning to leave.

"Karasuba?

-What?" she growled, not turning to look at him.

-Thank you." he said, honestly.

Karasuba didn't answer, and left the room, leaving a surprised Harry behind.

As she stormed out to find someone to get a drink for Harry, Karasuba had to refrain herself from growling in anger. He "cared" for her? What a joke! He didn't know what Love was, and neither did she, so there was no way he would be able to care about her! And WHY for the love of whatever retarded God created the world she was on, did she react like a love struck human schoolgirl? She was the Black Sekirei, the one feared by every MBI employee, a natural born killer, and if Takami was to be believed, a psychotic mass murderer. She personally preferred to say that she simply had a more gory way of relieving her stress than most people.

But on to the main problem: Harry Potter, while he was still a pathetic weakling, had the potential to become strong enough to warrant her interest and become her Ashikabi. She needed him to understand her, she needed him to _feel _ like her! If a mere week was enough for him to "care" about her, as he so defiantly put it, then there was a serious problem with his psyche! How could he, after suffering so much at the hands of his own family, and from what she had been able to piece together, everyone else, still want to get close to someone?

Then she came to a realization, it was to her he was the closest to. It didn't seem he wanted to get close to anyone else, now that she thought about it, that she took the time to _think_ rather than act as she usually did. In a sense, it was actually better that if his ability to feel had been destroyed completely, as it would mean that if she played her cards right, she would be able to guide his growth in the right direction all the more easier. If she managed to be the one person he looked up to, well more than he did already, then she would be able to influence him to get him where she wanted him to be.

She shivered in pleasure at the realization that if he grew up to her expectations, she would be able to wing herself on him, which would grant her the power she needed to squash that annoying Yume once and for all, and then she would take care of Miya. Yes, the benefits far outweighed the few drawbacks. So she would have to wait, so what?

With her insane grin once more plastered on her face, she went to find a drink for Harry.

After another examination to make sure all his bones were properly healed, Harry was allowed to leave, along with Karasuba and Haruka. Karasuba looked like something good had happened to her, but he was smart enough to know that it would be stupid to ask the grey-haired woman about it. He had quickly caught on the fact that she was not likely to react well to personal questions, so he had decided that unless something was really troubling her, he would avoid asking her.

They were headed for Gringotts, as apparently Breakbone had been able to find his notes about the ritual needed to remove the piece of soul in his head. He was quite glad that they would be able to remove it, as the idea of having a piece of the soul of someone whom Haruka had described as an "insane psychotic bastard" gave him the creeps. That and he was quite worried that said piece of soul would influence him. His mind was supposed to be his own, and he would make sure of that.

"**Ready Harry?**"

Once again, he was laying on the block of stone he had been on the day before, and once again he was strapped to it, with a leather piece inserted in his mouth. From what he had gathered, the procedure would be even more painful and difficult than to free his magic, as while the block was tied to it quite closely, it was simply an inanimate piece of magic, little more than an object performing the duty it had been created to accomplish. The piece of soul, however, was actually alive, and while not a "full" being like a human, it did possess some basic intelligence and will of its own. And that made the procedure all the more difficult, as it was likely to try several tricks to avoid being destructed. What those tricks were, neither Harry nor the Goblins had the slightest idea, but it was quite clear that they were better off preparing for anything.

Surprisingly, the ritual was not nearly as complicated as what he had believed, but he was quite sure it was because the Goblins had dumbed the principle behind it so he could understand what awaited him. Basically, the piece of soul was tied to him, and strengthened the connection by leeching on his magic. That was a good thing in his case, as it probably still hadn't gotten the time to adapt to his new level of magic power, and by forcing Harry's magic to sever the connection, there was little it would be able to do to protect itself. Once it would be separated from him, the last part of the ritual consisted in transferring the piece of soul into an animal and off said animal. However, before any of this could be done, there was a cleansing part of the ritual, destined to erase the taint of the piece of soul, in case it tried to latch onto the magic of its host and contaminate it. If such a thing happened, usually the host magic got corrupted and usually ended up not obeying the person, making them end in some sort of timed bomb, that would eventually blow up when they tried to summon their magic.

"**Begin!**"

Once again, a chant started, and he waited, feeling something touch the scar on his head, prodding it, before slowly entering it. The sensation felt kind, benevolent, and was not at all intrusive, unlike what he had imagined. Then whatever had entered his scar touched what he assumed was the part of soul, and it surrounded it, containing the taint, enveloping it, before it started purifying it. Per se, it didn't remove anything from the fragment, instead it cleansed the Dark Magic inside it, and sent Light Magic to pacify the budding personality inside the soul piece. It was apparently one of the very few times Goblins made a difference between Light and Dark magic.

Then came the hard part. Now they were going to force Harry's magic to sever the connection with the soul piece, and it would not let it go quietly. The chant suddenly grew louder and got a shrill quality, hurting his ears. However, he was more worried about what he was feeling coming from his scar. It felt as if some kind of worm was wriggling beneath his skin, and the sensation was enough to give him goosebumps, his hair standing up on his neck. It was a very unpleasant sensation, and it was getting worse by the second, as the piece of soul fought against the magic trying to cut off the magic it was feeding on.

All of a sudden his eyes widened, and he felt his body arch, his muscles bulging under his skin, and his mouth open in a silent scream. He felt as if someone had dripped his body in a container full of acid, and his head was feeling as if it was about to split open. He could vaguely feel his limbs trashing around, but it was merely a distraction. The pain was even worse than what he felt the day before, as it was coupled with the knowledge that if the ritual failed, the piece of soul may take over his mind, making him into a replica of the very person who had tried to kill him.

For what felt like hours, he could only scream his throat raw, tears falling down his cheeks as the pain ravaged his body and mind, his body moving erratically, as if some mad puppeteer was using strings to move them in grotesque ways. A small part of him was amazed that none of his bones had broken nor had any of his muscles been overexerted, but he was quite willing to bet that he would pay for it as soon as the ritual was over.

In the room next to the ritual room, Haruka and Karasuba were waiting for the procedure to finish. The Ministry employee finally gathered her courage, and asked the grey-haired woman:

"_What are your intentions towards Harry-kun?_"

The Black Sekirei grinned, her hand on the hilt of her nodachi, without turning to look at the woman that she considered as little more than a nuisance.

"_Oh? And how is this your business, Haru-chan?"_

She had the pleasure to hear the witch gulp audibly, and she could almost picture her fidgeting, something that amused her greatly.

"_Harry-kun has suffered greatly at the hands of his relatives, it is the Ministry's job to see that he finds a suitable family. And he is a symbol of the Light, so it is our responsibility to ensure that whoever adopts him cares for him and do not use him for their own gain._

_-Oh, really? And I suppose that after finding him a good family, you'd stay in contact with him, maybe asks some favors, like supporting your Ministry from time to time. That is the very definition of using someone for your own gain. Aren't you quite the hypocrite, Haru-chan?"_

Karasuba felt the witch stiffen, but her senses didn't pick up the sound of anything having being brought out, so she didn't take out her nodachi. If Haruka ever so much as pointed her wand at her, she would slice her into tiny pieces and claim self-defense. And if whoever governed the magical part of the country wasn't happy, she'd be more than happy to deal with the teams they'd send to retrieve Harry.

"_I don't care what you think, but Harry-chan WILL stay with me. I will make sure he becomes strong enough to decide what HE wants to do. And if you want any part in his life, you will go through ME. Anyone I don't approve of won't approach Harry-chan unless they wish to suffer a very...__**painful**__ end. Is that understood?"_

As she said that, she leisurely stroked the hilt of her nodachi, ensuring that the young woman understood what she exposed herself to if she didn't comply to her wish. She wasn't sure that the intimidation would work, as for what she had seen, wizards and witches seemed to be quite proud, and since she hadn't showed any indication of having magical power, she seemed to be looked down upon. That is, when people were not in her immediate vicinity, since the sword at her side and her usual manic grin made it quite clear that those stupid enough to be insulting towards her when she was around would most likely suffer.

Haruka was about to answer, when a loud alarm started ringing, and a voice barked orders in what Karasuba recognized as the Goblins' language, Gobbledegook. That stopped both women from continuing their one-sided argument, as Haruka went to ask the nearest Goblin guard what was happening, the Sekirei right behind her. Usually, she would not have been overly concerned, but she had a feeling what was happening was somehow linked to Harry.

The Goblin Haruka was interrogating was not very forthcoming with information, though as soon as Karasuba walked up to him, he paled and started talking.

"Something's gone wrong with the procedure. Apparently the fragment of soul had tied itself to Mr. Potter's soul, and any attempt to dislodge it only harms him. Our best Cursebreakers and Healers have been called to find a solution quickly, otherwise he is going to die or become Voldemort's new body."

Haruka gasped, but Karasuba was almost snarling. She was furious. She had found someone who could genuinely relate to her, and was willing to spend time in her company, even though she was a psychotic murderer, something she had not hidden from Harry. His only reaction had been a shrug, before he asked if she intended to hurt him. When she had answered that she did not, he had simply said: "Then why should I care?", she had felt a pleasant warmth in her, something she had sorely missed. And now some Dark Lord residue wanted to take over _her_ Harry?

With a growl, she opened the door, strolling past a surprised Goblin guard and a startled Haruka, before stopping in front of the door leading to the ritual chamber. She had been told that external interference could mess up the rituals something fierce, but she didn't care. If she had to choose between trying to help Harry, even if it could fail, and not doing anything, then there wasn't even a choice to be made in the first place. With a grin, she cocked her leg back, before kicking the door open and entering the room without a care in the world. She could see Harry trashing around and scream, while the Goblins chanting were surprised upon seeing her but were professional enough not to stop chanting.

Strolling up to the boy, she grabbed him by the collar and slapped him twice, before looking at him in the eyes and growling:

"Listen, Harry-chan, if you lose to that piece of soul I am going to kick your ass so hard you'll regret you were ever born! So be a fucking man and **fight** this fucker!"

She wasn't sure of the effect her words had on Harry, though she thought that for a moment she had seen something akin to determination in his eyes before a wave of magic blasted her into the nearest wall, breaking a few of her ribs. That only made her grin though, as she got up to her feet easily, clutching her side.

"That's more like it! Show us what you're made of, Harry-chan!"

In truth she thought it was a good test of character for Harry, after all if he wasn't able to at least fight back a piece of soul, then he would really disappoint her. If he was to one day be her Ashikabi, she wasn't going to let him go all scared pussy on her, and if he had to fight a piece of the soul of a supposedly extremely powerful bastard to prove his character to her, then so be it. She would not settle for a weak man, even if said man was able to understand her feelings. He may have a lot of power, but if he didn't have the will and the guts to use it, it was useless to have it in the first place.

With a scream that sent shivers of pleasure down her spine, Harry was engulfed in a dark light, before his body fell back on the stone he had been tied to, his breathing calming down. The Goblins quickly began to chant again, though this time it was much quieter and more soothing, though their gravelly voices made it strange to the ear.

After a few minutes, they stopped chanting, and begun speaking in hushed tones. Karasuba just shrugged and went to check on Harry. As she expected, he was unconscious and looked exhausted, however his scar was no longer the angry red it had been when they had met, as it was now more pinkish, and would probably fade to a dull white with time.

It was at this point that the doors banged open, this time pushed by a very irate-looking Haruka, who was followed by a no less irate Bonebreaker, who, upon seeing Karasuba, zeroed on her.

"_You! Are you crazy?! Do you have any idea of what your actions could have caused? How much damage Harry could have taken?!_"

At this point, he stopped, his eyes on the nodachi resting on his neck, courtesy of a grinning grey-haired woman.

"_Now, now. All is fine now, right? Harry-chan got rid of that soul piece..._

_-No, it isn't "fine"!"_ yelled Haruka, who was looking at Harry warily. "_The Goblins said that he did get rid of the soul piece, but not before it transferred the memories it contained to Harry! Now he has Merlin only knows how many memories of torture, murder and destruction in him! We don't even know how he will react to them! For all we know, you just caused the creation of the next Dark Lord!_"

Now it was Haruka's turn to stop talking, as the look Karasuba was giving her made it quite clear that not only she didn't care, but also that if she continued speaking, unpleasant things were going to happen to her, most likely involving sharp objects stuck in her body.

"_Don't think_ _Harry is the scared little kid you make him. If he managed to stay sane after all that happened to him, then more memories like that will not change him that much. Besides, I don't think you even _begin_ to understand just how mature he is. After all he has lived through, I would be surprised if he isn't already more mature than some so-called adults."_

The discussion was cut short when the Goblins responsible for the ritual told the people present that Harry would probably not wake before the next day. Just to be sure, they offered to make him stay in the hospital he had been treated at, in case there was an emergency of any kind. They also explained they had used some magic to make it easier for Harry's brain to process the memories and differentiate those from Voldemort from his own. Unfortunately, there was little more they could do, after all, Mind Arts were not their forte, and even human Healers would have had trouble considering Harry's circumstances. Right now his mind would probably reject any external intervention, and it was best to not overexert him by adding that to the already heavy toll his brain would be under.

Harry groaned as his head hurt. He knew that something had not gone quite as planned, but he couldn't for the life of him figure what. The last thing he knew, he had used his magic to try and help the ritual, but the piece of soul had latched onto it and used it to connect with him, and then, well he couldn't remember.

"Finally awake?"

Jumping upright, Harry found himself facing a handsome young man, probably sixteen, perhaps a little younger. He was quite tall, towering over Harry, and had a handsome face, dark hair and eyes. Instantly his instincts kicked in, and he analyzed the young man, searching for any kind of clue in his physical language. Fortunately, it betrayed no hostile intent, so Harry allowed himself to relax a little.

"Who are you?" he asked. He had to force himself a little to ask the question, as at the Dursleys, such a thing would have earned him a beating easily. He had started growing out of his old habits, since Karasuba had pushed him to assert himself, but it had only been a week, so he wasn't quite there yet.

The young man, however, didn't seem to take offense, and instead smiled warmly.

"Ah, well I will explain that in a moment, but for now, where do you think we are?" he asked, making a gesture to show around him.

Both males were in a sea of darkness, with images occasionally drifting by. It felt _wrong_, yet Harry couldn't really see why. After a little while, he spoke:

"My mind?" he answered, unsure of himself.

"Yes! Indeed, we are in your mind, Harry. Now, as for who I am, you could say I was Voldemort before he went insane and power hungry. Please call me Tom." said the young man, as he looked genuinely happy that Harry had figured out where they were.

Upon hearing who he was talking to, Harry recoiled slightly. While he had no memories of Voldemort, the man had apparently tried to kill him, and he wasn't very comfortable with talking to the man, especially in his own mind.

"Don't worry. I know I didn't really come across as someone you could just talk to with my actions in the real world, but please, allow me to explain myself."

Normally Harry would have tried to flee or find something to hide, however the pleading look on Tom's face was too real to be faked, so he slowly nodded, making the older man smile warmly as he sat down and gestured to Harry to do the same.

"Thank you, Harry. First of all, allow me to explain why we both are in your mind, and why I am quite different of what you have been told about me.

As you know, I created Horcruxes, or soul anchors, whichever is the easiest to understand for you, to become immortal. Unfortunately, in my haste, I had disregarded a warning in the book where I found how to do so. To put it simply, splitting my soul did make me immortal, however, it also irreversibly damaged my soul. Now, I know the Goblins haven't told you this, as even they don't know, but you aren't the only anchor I made, and to be frank, you were an accident.

-Excuse me?" asked Harry, confused. He was an accident? He had thought that creating an anchor was a deliberate process.

"Please, let me explain. You see, I created my first anchor when I was still sixteen. At first I was planning for it to be the only one I would create, however once I created it, my mind was affected by the aftereffects. Damaging my soul to create it had apparently amplified the worst aspects of my mind, and I was so drunk on my apparent power that I had what, at the moment, seemed to be the idea of the century: if one anchor made me immortal, then I would create more, to use as failsafe, making me truly immortal and not depending on the state of a single object.

As I grew older, I created more anchors, further damaging my soul and causing my mind to descend into insanity. I became...twisted, distorted, a shadow of my former self, a monster driven by less than noble ideals. When I had wanted to better the world, I now wanted to rule it, since I "knew better". That's when you come into play. For reasons you will learn later, I decided to kill you, but unfortunately for who I had became, something went wrong and my spell ended killing me instead, separating my soul from my body, as my anchors kept me from truly dying. However, in the process, my damaged soul further split, and the piece that had detached itself from my main body latched onto the only viable container allowable to me: you.

Now, the reason why I am here is simple: when the Goblins tried to remove me from you, I was purified, cleansed of the damage I had suffered at the hands of my former self, I regained some reason. However, I knew that nobody knew about my other anchors, and as such, I had to give you my memories. You'll need them, as I'm sure that the monster that was once myself will come after you sooner or later. Not only that, but I could also help and mend some of the damage your mind received at the Dursleys. Few people know this, Harry, but I was an orphan, and I lived a less than happy childhood, though yours was still worse than mine. I can understand where you come from, Harry. I truly can. And let me say that I want nothing more than to make up for my mistake. And mending some of the scars your so called family left on your psyche can help you, otherwise you will never be able to truly exploit your full potential."

Harry just sat there, too stunned to even utter a word. Finally, his brain managed to piece together what he had been told, and he croaked:

"What?

-Ah, I guess it's a bit much to take in, unfortunately I can't really afford to take my time, since me-this personality- is dissolving quickly. Let's just say that I'll be helping you organize your mind, okay? Oh, and find yourself someone to love. I made the mistake of thinking I was alone in the world, and I still regret it. See you!" said Tom, waving cheerfully at him as his body dissolved into green particles.

And with that, the most bizarre encounter Harry had had in his entire life came to an end as he felt memories, feelings that were not his own, crash down and enter his mind. For a moment, he felt as if he was going to be overwhelmed by the onslaught, as it was like a tidal wave crashing down on his mind and about to break it. However, as he was about to give up, to let the foreign memories destroy him, the wave receded, and became a light stream instead, only one or two memories at a time.

The feeling was extremely strange, as he knew that what he was seeing weren't his own memories, his own feelings, though they felt as though they were his own. He was glad that Tom had apparently started to help him filter and organize what he was receiving, otherwise he would have lost himself in the flow. As for the memories themselves, most were gruesome, extremely so, though for some reason he wasn't as repulsed as he should have, probably a combined effect of his upbringing and of Tom's actions.

And so, little by little, he managed to integrate the memories as his own. It was a long, tedious process, but for some reason that Harry suspected to be Tom, organizing his mind efficiently came easily to him. The most surprising part, though, was that he was not only receiving Voldemort's memories, but also his knowledge. He didn't know how much time he had spent organizing the flow of memories, but he had gone from "total beginner in magic", to " Master in several fields of magic and knowing more than your average wizard in the others". It felt extremely weird to find that a piece of information he could make no sense of moments earlier, was in fact qui easy to explain thanks to the latest one he had gained.

And so, he worked.

Later that day, Karasuba was sitting in one of the few rooms not strictly devoted to the bank's business and polishing her nodachi as she kept an eye on Harry when she saw him move. At first it wasn't much, but then his eyes fluttered open and he groaned.

"I think I'm starting to have enough of waking up feeling like shit after dangerous magical rituals that can potentially be lethal."

She just grinned as she watched him groggily get up. One of the few rules she had set for herself was to not help him too much. He needed to toughen up. He may already be tough after his experiences at his relatives' hands, he was still too meek and depended too much on people. She wanted him to learn how to do things by himself.

"Awake then? How do you feel, Harry-chan?

-Like shit. I've got the mother of all headaches, and I'm trying to get used to know things I'm not supposed to know."

That made Karasuba curious. Putting her blade back in its sheath, she walked over to where her potential Ashikabi was sitting.

"Oh? Like what?" she asked, her usual grin on her face.

Harry just gave her a glance, before he sighed and waved his hand. As soon as he finished, she found that she couldn't move, no matter how hard she tried, something that made her grin even more.

"Impressive. Mind freeing me, Harry-chan?"

Shrugging, he waved his hand once more, and she found that she could now move.

"If you think _that_ is impressive, wait until I can use some of the more powerful spells Tom knew. Some of them can literally level houses if you put enough power in them.

-Tom? Who's that?

-Tom Marvolo Riddle, the true name of Voldemort. The funny thing is that he isn't even a pureblood, he's a half-blood preaching about blood purity."

Karasuba blinked, unsure of what he meant. The way he was talking made her think that he had learnt quite a few things since he went unconscious, all of them related to the politics of the magicals.

As she pondered what "purebloods" and "half-blood" could mean, Harry seemed to understand her questioning look, as he scratched his head.

"Oh, sorry about that. Pureblood refers to someone who is born in a family where everyone up to the grandparents have magic, while half-bloods have at least one person in either their parents or grandparents that can't use magic.

Apparently, in Britain, there's a lot of fuss around blood purity as they call it. To put it simply, purebloods are the old families, and most of them are convinced that those who aren't purebloods are inferior to them, and they go quite far to keep their blood "pure" as they call it. Some of them even marry their cousins to ensure that, bloody morons. They even try to make laws to restrict the rights of those that aren't purebloods.

-So, basically, they want to keep the power for themselves? And they screw their own families to make sure their children aren't half-bloods?

-Yeah on both counts."

Karasuba gave Harry a look that told him just how stupid she thought the British wizards were, not that he could blame her. While Tom had eventually accepted it, Harry, for his part, found it incredibly idiotic. The purebloods were basically screwing themselves over, since in a few generations they would be so inbred that their genetics would become deficient. It was a good thing he was so curious that he read far ahead of the school program (that and he had to make sure he understood the subjects well enough that he wouldn't get beaten), otherwise he wouldn't have known that.

"Anyway, Harry-chan, the Goblins want to run a few tests on you, just to make sure you aren't possessed by that fragment." the grey-haired woman said, causing the wizard to groan as she grinned. She knew full well that it was indeed Harry she was talking to, she could feel it.

"Should have expected that. It's either dangerous rituals or tests these days for me. Hopefully it'll be the last time, because I'm starting to really have enough of those. Let's get this over with."

The moment Harry entered the room, several Goblins pointed their axes to him, while Haruka pointed her wand, looking slightly uneasy. It was quite obvious that right now they were almost expecting him to start cackling madly and throwing killing curses around. Sure, he knew how to do that, he had Tom's memories after all, but he was only seven, and recovering from a life of malnutrition! He had only enough power to cast a powerful stunner at most, before he fainted from overexertion! Though, considering how much reserves he had, when they would be full, he would be able to cast quite a lot more, though he doubted he would ever use the killing curse. Sure, it was efficient, but if he missed the risk of touching someone he hadn't meant to and killing them by accident was real.

Shaking back those thoughts, he walked towards the throne-like chair he had been pointed to. While he didn't like the idea of people trying to determine if he was himself or not, he couldn't really afford to tell them that, unless he wanted to have an unpleasant encounter with axes that would result in his death, and probably a new war between wizards and Goblins if it ever got out.

As he sat down, he was given three drops of a water-like potion that he instantly recognized. _Veritaserum, uh? Guess it's the best way to check, since there's no way to resist the serum._ While that was true, someone with enough training in the Mind Arts could purposely leave details out, details that sometimes could make all the difference. Unfortunately, there was no way to lie when asked a very direct question, like what your name was.

"Name?" asked Stonebreaker, his axe quite close to Harry's neck.

"Harry Potter." he answered immediately, much to the relief of everyone present.

"Have you been influenced in any way by the piece of soul of Lord Voldemort that was stuck inside you?

-Not to my knowledge. However, I met a man that called himself Tom Marvolo Riddle in my mind. He was Lord Voldemort before he went crazy and power-hungry."

Everyone in the room tensed, and Stonebreaker asked another set of questions, to which Harry ended up describing his encounter with Tom and everything he could put into words that happened afterwards. It took the better part of a half-hour and several more doses of Veritaserum, but the people present managed to get the entire story out of Harry, though most of it came as a shock to both the Goblins and Haruka.

"Lord Voldemort was a half-blood? He created more Horcruxes?" asked the ministry employee, too shocked to focus on anything else.

The Goblins, despite having heard the same thing, had a very different reaction, the guards were still pointing their weapons on Harry, however their faces had contorted in a mask of fury. Stonebreaker, Ripbone and Bonebreaker, the latter two having being called at some point during the interrogation, were shouting things in Gobbledegook, and if Harry was to believe Tom's knowledge of the language, they were cursing like sailors. He managed to catch the gist of their conversation, though.

Goblins had apparently a very, _very_ big dislike of Dark magic, and as far as Horcruxes went, they were the Darkest of the Darkest, meaning that they really, _really_ wanted to destroy all of the ones they came across. To know that, according to Tom's memories, there were at least five more, made them beyond furious, as the very idea of splitting a soul was against nature, and Voldemort had done it repeatedly. And the fact was that only Harry knew where they were, and what defenses were around them.

Finally, the group seemed to reach a decision, and Ripbone made a sign, immediately making a guard give Harry the antidote. The young wizard felt immediately better, not that the effects of the Veritaserum were uncomfortable. In fact, the serum made the user slip into some kind of blissful state, making it easier for the person to answer the questions, and the magic it was laced with forced the person to tell the truth.

"Harry, I am sorry to ask you this, but could you tell us what you know about those other Horcruxes? It is extremely important that we destroy them. So long as they exist, Voldemort will never die, and the fact that you were one means that he is still alive in one form or another."

Carefully choosing his words, Harry answered:

"There is a problem. I can tell you what and where they are, and I am sure you would be able to get past the protections Tom placed around them, but at least one of them will be impossible to retrieve for now."

Seeing as the Goblins were about to protest, he quickly raised his hands in a placating gesture.

"Please, listen. I don't doubt that you have what it takes to get the Horcruxes, but one of them has been handed to Lucius Malfoy, and another to Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix has put hers in her vault at Gringotts, so that one will not be too difficult to get. It's the one Lucius has that will be difficult to get. As far as Tom memories goes, Lucius has a lot of power in Magical Britain, and it would be impossible to get inside his manor to get it without ironclad proof that he still has it.

There's another one that will prove difficult to get: Tom hid it in a special room at Hogwarts, and only I know how to get inside and get it. Not only that, but we can't really storm Hogwarts' grounds without a reason, and alerting Voldemort that we know about his Horcruxes would be counterproductive.

I can tell you where the others are, but those two will be the most troublesome to get."

The three Goblins nodded. It was easy for them to understand what he meant, as all three of them had, at one point or another, worked in England, and were familiar with the blatant racism that was shown towards their species there. It was so bad that they couldn't do anything without proof of the involvement of Lucius Malfoy in reprehensible activities, and their accords with the wizards prevented them from looking for said proof. Not only that, but if the man had half the power Harry said he had, then it was quite possible that proofs would be outright ignored. Nobody wanted to anger powerful people, save for other powerful people.

With a sigh, Ripbone simply said:

"Well, for now, could you give us the memories of where they are hidden, so that we can at least get rid of those?

-Sure. Uh, does someone have something to put them inside?"

After a last check-up, Harry was deemed fine enough to be let out of Gringotts' care, and both he and Karasuba hurried out, though not for the same reasons. Harry did so because he feared that if he stayed any more, he would need to partake in yet another dangerous ritual, and he had had his share for the year. Karasuba, for her part, wanted to leave because staying in a bank with warriors surrounding her made it difficult for her to ignore her bloodlust, and she knew that if she wanted Harry to one day become a worthy Ashikabi, alienating the species that overlooked the financial part of the magical world by slaughtering some of them was a bad idea.

She looked Harry over, and she had to admit, she was quite happy with how he had ended after gaining that Dark Lord's memories. While he hadn't changed physically, his posture had changed quite a bit, going from slumped and trying to disappear to standing straight and proud, showing confidence, the kind of confidence that wasn't outright arrogance like some people could display. That was a very good thing, it meant that he had gotten over most of his mental scars. Sure, she knew they were still there, but like physical scars, they probably had faded to the point where they should be far less noticeable.

"So, where to, Harry-chan?" she asked, her usual grin plastered on her face.

Harry simply glanced at her, before saying:

"To the bookstore. Thanks to Tom's memories, I've got a lot of knowledge on European magic, but I'm rather curious about what I can learn from Japanese spells."

And with that, Haruka led them to the bookstore, while the grey-haired woman was inwardly cackling in glee. Harry had learnt a very valuable lesson: there is always something to learn. It was a good attitude, after all considering that with the knowledge he had, he could simply decide he didn't have to learn more, but he didn't. Of course, she was thinking of the variety of potentially lethal spells he may be able to learn, after all magic was made to be used, right?

The evening saw the group of three looking to a sign saying what Haruka translated as "Animals and Yokai far Wizards and Witches". It was quite common for magic users to have magical pets, and Haruka had said that Harry could probably use one.

As they entered the shop, they found that it was, unsurprisingly, bigger on the inside than on the outside, a use of magic they had found in most other shops, save for the wandmaker's. The shop had two floors, the first being linked to the second by spiraling stairs made of wood. It was tastefully decorated in red and golden tones, and the overall feeling it gave off was quite inviting.

The animals were separated by types, the birds being on one side, the mammals on another, while the back was apparently dedicated to snakes, which, unlike in Britain, were considered like servants of the Gods, sometimes Gods themselves, and were not feared or shunned as a symbol of Evil. The upper level was reserved to the more magical species, as most of those that were present on the ground floor were more or less variants of "normal" species, like owls, cats or dogs. Haruka told the two of them that owls were apparently used a way to deliver letters in the magical world, and Harry simply shrugged as he already knew that thanks to Tom's memories, while Karasuba snorted.

Harry though it was unwise to tell Haruka he was a Parseltongue, after all, while snakes were not ostracized in Japan, the ability was probably not common here either, therefore he preferred to keep it to himself. He didn't want the Ministry to start knowing too much about his abilities, and he was quite sure that they would try to compile as much information on him as they could, after all information was power, Tom knew that better than anyone. By changing his name he had been able to gather followers that were attracted by his charisma and power, something that would have been impossible to do had it be known that the Dark Lord Voldemort was a half-blood.

Looking around and seeing no animal that interested him particularly, save for the cats (cats had always been good to him at Mrs. Figg's, they were one of the few comforts he had had when he was still living at the Dursleys'), he climbed the stairs while Karasuba browsed for herself. Harry was quite sure that if she ever found an animal she liked, it would probably be deadly, and he thanked whoever he could that Nundus were NOT allowed as pets.

He was on the last stair when he saw a black cat, slightly bigger than most he had seen at Mrs. Figgs, that was sitting on a table and licking it's paw. Its fur was as dark as night, and shone slightly, showing it was in good health. The most surprising thing about it were the two tails it had, clearly making it a magical species. While he knew most of Europe's magical species thanks to Tom's memories, his mind drew a blank as to this particular one.

Upon noticing Harry's gaze, the cat stopped it's toilet, opting to return the gaze. Neither Harry nor the cat turned away, and it took a good minute before Harry tore his gaze away, his eyes burning from the fact they hadn't been properly moistened. The next thing he knew, he had a black cat bumping into his leg, demanding his attention like only cats could, and he crouched, scratching it behind its ears and under its neck, making it purr loudly.

It was at that moment that an elderly woman came upstairs and saw the scene. Harry assumed she was going to pass next to him, however he heard the sound of hasty footsteps going down the stairs. Deciding he didn't really care, he continued to scratch the cat, which had been purring all the time, pushing into his hand with its head each time he scratched the side of its head. Now that he could see it up close, he could see that it was indeed bigger than a normal cat, though it was more...graceful? Than the ones he had seen at Mrs. Figg's.

A few moments later, the same woman came back, dragging Haruka with her and pointing at him. Karasuba was behind the two of them, grinning all the while. Once the Ministry employee saw Harry and the cat, she pinched her nose in a gesture that said _Why me_? and sighed, before the old woman started to speak. Haruka hurriedly traduced what she was saying.

"Harry, she says that you shouldn't touch that _Bakeneko_. Apparently it belonged to her mother and has been here for the better part of a century, and only recently transformed.

-...Sorry, I don't understand.

-There's a species of magical cats called _Bake-neko_, or ghost cats, that can live up to one hundred years old. If they reached that age, which happens only about once for seven members of their species, they become _Bakeneko_ in the truest sense of the word. Once they reach that state, they grow another tail and gain supernatural powers. Unfortunately, or fortunately, they can bring fortune or misfortune to their owners depending on how they feel towards them.

-So there shouldn't be any problems, right? I mean, he lik-_ouch_! What?"

The cat had hissed and scratched him, drawing blood. It looked at Harry, then towards the woman, and gave a subtle jerk of its head towards the woman. While most people would have been puzzled as to what it was supposed to mean, Harry understood immediately.

"Oh, you're a girl? Sorry, then." he said, scratching the female Bakeneko behind her ears. He was surprised when she stood on her hind legs, putting her paws on his shoulders and licked his nose.

The woman then said something else, and Haruka looked at her quizzically. Asking something to the old lady, she then turned towards Harry.

"Well, she says you can keep her. She's been doing nothing here for the last years, save for scaring some customers, so she says that if you want to keep her, you can. Her name is Rin."

Looking at the _Bakeneko_, who was still licking his face, Harry managed to ask:

"So, Rin. Wanna come with me?"

He was not expecting her to understand, apparently she had been around Japanese people all her life, so there was little luck that she'd be able to make sense of his words. Well, that was what he was thinking, until he saw her get back on all fours and start walking leisurely towards the stairs. Once she reached them, she turned to look at him and patted the ground next to her with her paw, in a gesture that meant "What are you waiting for? Come on!".

Harry just sighed, and resigned, finally acknowledging that nothing that happened to him could ever be normal.

Later that day, they had gotten back to the wandmaker's shop, and the man was grinning in a rather disturbing way, though neither Harry nor Karasuba reacted to it.

"Aah, Potter-san, welcome! I have finished your wand, and I have to confess that it has been the first time I took such pleasure in crafting a wand. Why, it was quite tricky, indeed!"

Disregarding the man's enthusiasm, Karasuba asked:

"I trust you have it around? It would be such a waste _if you didn't bring it right now_."

The man's smile dimmed a bit, but he simply walked to the back of his shop, before coming back with a beautifully crafted box. It had small gravures all around it's frame, but neither were they too ostentatious or exaggerated, they were simple, yet beautiful in their design.

"Here it is. Do open the box, Potter-san, I am sure you will find my work to be satisfactory. In fact, I can think of no wand that would best deserve the title of masterpiece."

Taking the box in his trembling hands, Harry carefully opened it. Inside the box was an eleven inches wand. It was beautifully crafted, with a handle that he was sure would perfectly fit him, no matter how much he would grow. The wood was a deep golden brown, though he could see faint golden and blue lines that circled around it. Small signs were drawn on it, and Harry recognized them as Runes, though he didn't know them.

Carefully grasping the wand, he gave it a small wave, and a giant flash occurred, forcing everyone in the shop to close their eyes, lest they get blinded.

When they opened them, though, they were stupefied to see a what looked like a golden fox with nine tails sitting in front of them, and a feminine silhouette made of ice. Both gave Harry a deep bow, before vanishing, the fox leaving small dancing flames and sparks, while the ice woman left ice crystals and snowflakes.

The wandmaker was bouncing up and down with a grin so large it threatened to split his face in half, looking exceedingly proud of what had happened, as if he had been the event's instigator. Harry, for his part, was looking overjoyed to finally have his wand, as it filled him with a sensation of deep acceptance, similar to how he felt when he first made contact with his magic. Haruka was looking rather baffled by what had happened, and Karasuba was grinning, _again_.

"What was that?" asked a curious Harry, as he studied the wand with a respectful stare.

"That, Potter-san, was something that was essential for you to be able to use your wand at its full power. Those manifestations mean that the beings that gave parts of their bodies so that you could have a core for your wand accepted you and who you truly are.

-"Who I truly am"?

-Yes, it is a rather difficult thing to explain, but you have to understand that for a wand like yours, where there are two cores, both need to bond to you, otherwise your wand wouldn't work. That does not mean that someone who has bonded with both cores can use the wand to its full capacity, no, for that, the magic of the beings that gave the elements constituting the core need to acknowledge your inner self, your personality, what makes you yourself. Most wizards reach this state far later in their life, and there aren't any manifestations, as it is a gradual process. It can also happen that someone will never be able to use a wand to its full power, simply because they are insufficiently linked to their wand, or because they are not true to themselves.

Allow me to give you a simple example: if someone was to have a strong urge to protect people, but later in life became an Auror and at some point stopped protecting people because of new regulations or a change of personality, their wand would either never work as well as it could, as the owner went against their true self, against what they wanted, or gradually stop working for them altogether.

This means that if someone was to have a complete change of personality, often due to some kind of traumatic event, then the wand would subsequently either work better for them if they finally did what they truly wanted, or stop working if they went against what their true self was when they first got their wand."

It made sense, Harry mused. If the wand was attuned to one person, then if said person changed too much, the wand would either work far better or stop working altogether.

He didn't even realize that Karasuba had already paid for his wand and was pushing him to return to MBI's Tower.

* * *

**Here, done. So now Harry has his wand, Tom's memories, and a lot of power. For those that say that it is a cheap power-up, I will remind you that a soul piece is sentient, and the one in Harry's scar had been leeching magic for six years. Therefore, I do not find it impossible that it may attempt what happened in this chapter.  
**

**As for the manifestations from the wand, they aren't unique to Harry. They happen from time to time, but they are rare, since they mean that the people getting their wands are completely honest with themselves, something few manage to do, even less eleven years old.  
**

**Anyway, Reviews are welcomes, constructive criticism too.**


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